By Rana Ali Hamza
BA 7
Writing for Digital Media
Submitted to Miss Maheen Ahmed
Spotify and patari are music service available online which lets you access a lot of songs, podcasts and videos globally and nationaly. The reason spotify has a huge audience is because it is easy to access and is very user friendly and its geographicalboundries are too vast internationaly. All you need is an email address to sign up or simply connect it to your Facebook for both of these application . Bothof these apps can be accessed on all devices such as Mobile Phones, Laptops and PC. Spotify can be easily referred to as the Netflix of music streaming services due to its availability in most countries and huge library of music. The music streaming application operates on two models, one is the freemium model and the other is the paid model. Spotify did not rely on big expensive campaigns to market itself at least in the initial stage. They instead went with a modest marketing approach that would not cost them a lot of money. They marketed themselves through word of mouth, co-marketing and PR. Initially when launched it was invite-only and only certain users had access to it. Many people who were invited to test out the application posted it on their social media and word got out about a music streaming service and hence a buzz was created for Spotify and that buzz was what has made it popular today (Chaffey, 2015). This marketing strategy was also applied by a Pakistani music streaming service, Patari which in its initial stage invited members to sign up on the application and then they would post about the application on social media and more people would want to be a part of, it .Pakistan does not have a lot of music streaming websites available but they have proven to be popular in the Pakistani market. The Pakistani ones are startup Patari, is related to Pakistani popular culturePatari is a good music streaming service. However, considering the fact that it is leading in music streaming as far as Pakistani music is considered, it should expand into other markets like spotify did starting with the South Asian region in order to take the lead in music streaming industry such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives etc and compete with the Indian market as well. and what would click with the youth. The other approach it goes for is that it partners up with popular music shows such as Nescafe Basement and Pepsi Battle of the Bands or connects with artists to release their music exclusively on the website. Patari is also one of the few music streaming services that makes it original music in addition to distributing music of other parties. Spotify usesInstagram through different modes of marketing. One of them will be adapting Patari’s style of using short video clips/meme and relating it to Pakistani culture. The other approach will be showcasing pictures of musicians/bands with a catchy caption or talking about their new songs being exclusively available on the website.Streaming these days makes up 80% of the music industry’s revenue . As per The Wall Street Journal, this year music streaming in the United States grew by 26 percent which amounts to a revenue of $4.3 billion with paid subscribers growing up to 31 percent (Steele, 2019)
Unfortunately there are no facts and figures to determine the condition of music streaming services in Pakistan. However it can be roughly assumed that it is a lucrative business since there are many streaming services available but not as much since Spotify has not launched in Pakistan at the moment.Spotify also has a share on Instagram option and sponsored ads will be made on a weekly basis with short clips of songs and encouraging people to use the sharing on Instagram feature both on Instagram Profile and Instagram stories which will amount to a good amount of user engagement. Instagram marketing relies on the product being presented visually considering that people these days don’t have a lot of time and people are more easily attracted to pictures hence making Instagram a great mode of marketing (9 case studies where clever Instagram marketing got huge results).
Spotify would do well to make use of television ads because it would then be able to target an audience other than the one that utilizes social media. Not only would it open the doors for a wider audience, it would also save a lot of time and money, and drive up subscriptions Patari has proven that it is okay to take risks. Despite the fact that during Patari’s launch, the music industry was in its declining phase, the service brought it back up. The service encouraged many musicians to get back into music as well as many newcomers to get into the business. Streaming services such as JioSaavn and Deezer also saw an opportunity to officially launch them in Pakistan. Not only that, but it has also encouraged podcast culture with many people creating and listening to podcasts. Hence, Patari is a promising service that has opened up a lot of opportunities that were never seen once before in the country
However, it is extremely important to remember that more ads, does not necessarily mean more subscribers. In fact, according to a 21-month study conducted by Pandora radio (a rival music streaming service) too many ads can motivate users to pay for an ad-free premium subscription however if one pushes it too far it can have a disastrous effect on users and cause many to abandon the service altogether in favor of another service, of which there are many. The study found that even if the subscription fees are reasonable, they do not cover the loss of ad revenue from those who leave the service entirely.
Sponsoring Concerts Whereas in the past sponsorships would be seen as being charitable or even philanthropic, the same cannot be said in this day and age. This is due to the fact that nowadays large corporations and organizations are unwilling to directly associate with products or events that are unable to guarantee any sort of benefits or ‘return’.I believe that sponsorships could be beneficial to Spotify because not only would it raise awareness as to the existence of the music streaming platform to newer audiences but also, depending upon the brands that decide to sponsor Spotify, it can be great for the promotion of various brands, logos and products seeing as how as of right now Spotify has an audience of 228 million users worldwide which patari did not have. Sponsoring Spotify would also be beneficial to companies looking to foster a favorable brand or company association due to the fact that since its creation back in 2006, not once has a controversy arisen concerning the music streaming service.
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