What is it: the Russian market of streaming services
Already in July, it became clear that 2017 will be the year of musical streaming. Sales of albums on digital and physical media fell by 17% and 20% respectively.
Despite this, the volume of sales of music in the US still grew . The industry was saved by streaming services - the number of auditions in them increased by 60%. This trend began in 2016 - according to its results, the income of the music industry grew mainly due to online, in particular, streaming services.
A similar situation in 2016 was observed in Russia - the most active increase was due to streaming. More than a million paying users of Apple Music, Yandex.Music and other services helped to double the revenues of these companies in this segment. Now almost 40% of the industry accounts for streaming.
We offer to understand what is happening in the Russian market of streaming.
Photo of Philippe Put CC
Only 4 years ago, only a quarter of Russians were ready to pay for content on the Internet. A year later, this figure doubled. And now the proportion of users who are ready to purchase content has reached 70%.
Last year, the international federation of the recording industry raised Russia from 28th to 26th place in the ranking of countries in terms of consumption of paid music. Now about one million people use music streaming services in Russia. However, in the coming years, the situation may change - by 2020, from 10 to 12 million Russian users will buy legal access to music.
Already, streaming services operators have noted changes in the behavior of Russians. Today, the introduction of paid subscriptions will not cause a mass outflow of users, so the free is gradually replaced by the paid.
This fall, a major event was the restriction of free listening to music on the social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki in the background. First, up to an hour a day, and after - up to half an hour. To continue working with the audio player, users need to subscribe for 149 rubles per month.
Photo of Martinsson Serg CC
As a representative of the United Media Agency, which is engaged in licensing activities for the Mail.ru Group, which owns social networks, said, "none of the world’s streaming services provide an opportunity to listen to music in the background for free."
Moreover, copyright holders are impressed by the idea of completely abandoning free streaming. She, for example, voiced head of Sony Entertainment Michael Lynton (Michael Lynton). As soon as popular services attract the “critical mass” of subscribers, nothing will prevent them from closing the free access to music. Such a future is predicted by YouTube and Spotify.
Another way to monetize streaming services (in addition to paid subscriptions) is advertising. The market volume of online audio advertising today does not exceed 100 million rubles a year, but in the future this channel may reach 20-25% of the total revenue of the music industry on the Internet.
For example, Yandex.Music integrates audio ads between tracks. Thanks to this, the Yandex application has become the most profitable of non-gaming Google Play applications in Russia. A year ago, Vkontakte also made a move towards audio advertising.
VKontakte and Odnoklassniki some time ago headed the list of sites with the largest amount of pirated content. In 2016, VKontakte gave 1.5 years to remove all illegal materials. At the beginning of this year, a conflict with copyright holders flared up with a new force - labels demanded their share of the distribution of music on "the largest music platform in Russia." As a result, the corporation agreed with the publishers. The introduction of fees for listening to audio recordings in the fall is a consequence of this process.
Piracy remains a serious problem for the market. Together with the legal segment, the income of Russian-speaking pirated resources in 2016 also doubled. Pirated music copying of streaming services is one of the new earning tools. This trend has affected, for example, Yandex.Music. This year, the service allowed to upload custom tracks to the stream. However, he soon imposed a ban on the exchange of downloaded tracks. The decision of "Yandex" is also associated with the requirements of large labels.
The market of musical streaming in Russia today is divided by major players. The share of small services accounts for less than 10%. Apple Music remains the leader in terms of paying users - 600 thousand Russians are service subscribers. Yandex.Music is paid by over 250 thousand subscribers, but not all of them are from Russia. Google Play Music has 100 thousand Russian subscribers.
As in many other areas, Western projects strive for leadership in the Russian streaming market - for example, in November, the Deezer application provided Russian users with the opportunity to listen to music in CD quality - before they did VKontakte and Yandex.Music . But Russian companies have an advantage in terms of audience coverage and price.
Domestic Streaming is actively capturing new users. For example, Yandex.Music was integrated into Facebook this fall. Before that, there were only foreign competitors of the company. As for the pricing policy, it is she, in the opinion of the head of the Russian Authors' Society, Andrei Krichevsky, that does not allow Spotify to enter the Russian market. And he is the international leader in paid subscribers.
In the global market, operators have long used cooperation with streaming services to increase the subscriber base. This is due to the emergence of a new service in the tariff package.
Spotify in this regard is the most sought-after partner. In 2014, using this model, he had to enter the Russian market together with MTS, but nothing happened. Now operators in Russia are developing their own products.
Photo maxpixel CC
MTS eventually launched its service based on Yandex.Music - MTC Music. There is an opinion that this product has made a significant contribution to the growth in the number of users of the Yandex service. MegaFon has a special rate for listening to Yandex and Zvooq music.
On a similar model operates "Tele2". The Beeline Veon app is teaming up with Deezer to attract new premium subscribers. Probably, with the growth of the audience paying for eavesdropping music, the operators' tariffs also become more relevant.
Materials on the topic in our "World Hi-Fi":
PS “ New Year Gift Ideas ”: a special selection of products from our range that will help you choose gifts for your loved ones and friends.
Despite this, the volume of sales of music in the US still grew . The industry was saved by streaming services - the number of auditions in them increased by 60%. This trend began in 2016 - according to its results, the income of the music industry grew mainly due to online, in particular, streaming services.
A similar situation in 2016 was observed in Russia - the most active increase was due to streaming. More than a million paying users of Apple Music, Yandex.Music and other services helped to double the revenues of these companies in this segment. Now almost 40% of the industry accounts for streaming.
We offer to understand what is happening in the Russian market of streaming.
Photo of Philippe Put CC
More and more paying audience
Only 4 years ago, only a quarter of Russians were ready to pay for content on the Internet. A year later, this figure doubled. And now the proportion of users who are ready to purchase content has reached 70%.
Last year, the international federation of the recording industry raised Russia from 28th to 26th place in the ranking of countries in terms of consumption of paid music. Now about one million people use music streaming services in Russia. However, in the coming years, the situation may change - by 2020, from 10 to 12 million Russian users will buy legal access to music.
Free Content Is Getting Less
Already, streaming services operators have noted changes in the behavior of Russians. Today, the introduction of paid subscriptions will not cause a mass outflow of users, so the free is gradually replaced by the paid.
This fall, a major event was the restriction of free listening to music on the social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki in the background. First, up to an hour a day, and after - up to half an hour. To continue working with the audio player, users need to subscribe for 149 rubles per month.
Photo of Martinsson Serg CC
As a representative of the United Media Agency, which is engaged in licensing activities for the Mail.ru Group, which owns social networks, said, "none of the world’s streaming services provide an opportunity to listen to music in the background for free."
Moreover, copyright holders are impressed by the idea of completely abandoning free streaming. She, for example, voiced head of Sony Entertainment Michael Lynton (Michael Lynton). As soon as popular services attract the “critical mass” of subscribers, nothing will prevent them from closing the free access to music. Such a future is predicted by YouTube and Spotify.
Another way to monetize streaming services (in addition to paid subscriptions) is advertising. The market volume of online audio advertising today does not exceed 100 million rubles a year, but in the future this channel may reach 20-25% of the total revenue of the music industry on the Internet.
For example, Yandex.Music integrates audio ads between tracks. Thanks to this, the Yandex application has become the most profitable of non-gaming Google Play applications in Russia. A year ago, Vkontakte also made a move towards audio advertising.
The fight against piracy continues
VKontakte and Odnoklassniki some time ago headed the list of sites with the largest amount of pirated content. In 2016, VKontakte gave 1.5 years to remove all illegal materials. At the beginning of this year, a conflict with copyright holders flared up with a new force - labels demanded their share of the distribution of music on "the largest music platform in Russia." As a result, the corporation agreed with the publishers. The introduction of fees for listening to audio recordings in the fall is a consequence of this process.
Piracy remains a serious problem for the market. Together with the legal segment, the income of Russian-speaking pirated resources in 2016 also doubled. Pirated music copying of streaming services is one of the new earning tools. This trend has affected, for example, Yandex.Music. This year, the service allowed to upload custom tracks to the stream. However, he soon imposed a ban on the exchange of downloaded tracks. The decision of "Yandex" is also associated with the requirements of large labels.
Leadership
The market of musical streaming in Russia today is divided by major players. The share of small services accounts for less than 10%. Apple Music remains the leader in terms of paying users - 600 thousand Russians are service subscribers. Yandex.Music is paid by over 250 thousand subscribers, but not all of them are from Russia. Google Play Music has 100 thousand Russian subscribers.
As in many other areas, Western projects strive for leadership in the Russian streaming market - for example, in November, the Deezer application provided Russian users with the opportunity to listen to music in CD quality - before they did VKontakte and Yandex.Music . But Russian companies have an advantage in terms of audience coverage and price.
Domestic Streaming is actively capturing new users. For example, Yandex.Music was integrated into Facebook this fall. Before that, there were only foreign competitors of the company. As for the pricing policy, it is she, in the opinion of the head of the Russian Authors' Society, Andrei Krichevsky, that does not allow Spotify to enter the Russian market. And he is the international leader in paid subscribers.
Mobile operators and streaming
In the global market, operators have long used cooperation with streaming services to increase the subscriber base. This is due to the emergence of a new service in the tariff package.
Spotify in this regard is the most sought-after partner. In 2014, using this model, he had to enter the Russian market together with MTS, but nothing happened. Now operators in Russia are developing their own products.
Photo maxpixel CC
MTS eventually launched its service based on Yandex.Music - MTC Music. There is an opinion that this product has made a significant contribution to the growth in the number of users of the Yandex service. MegaFon has a special rate for listening to Yandex and Zvooq music.
On a similar model operates "Tele2". The Beeline Veon app is teaming up with Deezer to attract new premium subscribers. Probably, with the growth of the audience paying for eavesdropping music, the operators' tariffs also become more relevant.
Materials on the topic in our "World Hi-Fi":
- Join the stream: The present and the future of music streaming
- “For every taste”: streaming services for listening to music
- "How it works": radio - the end of a beautiful era
PS “ New Year Gift Ideas ”: a special selection of products from our range that will help you choose gifts for your loved ones and friends.
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