After The Album How Playlists Are Re-Defining Music Consumption

The 20,000 Foot View Streaming hit a host of milestones in 2015, reaching            million subscribers and driving            billion of trade revenue, up            on 2014. While the competitive marketplace upped the ante, music services wielded curation to drive differentiation. Playlists have always been the core currency of streaming, but now more than ever they are becoming the beating heart, the fuel which drives both discovery and consumption. In doing so they are helping drive hit singles into the ascendancy and albums to the side lines. Key Findings

           year olds are the consumers most likely to be listening to less radio            and also the most likely to stream           
• Spotify’s ‘Today’s            Hits’ playlist has            million followers            accounted for            of all listening            on Spotify in 2015 with                       billion streams
• ‘Today’s Top            grew at treble the rate            overall streaming in 2015 while            label playlists Topsify, Digster and            drove around half a billion           
• Hits become            hits on streaming services, with            Lazer’s ‘Lean On’ generating            million            rights owners from Spotify alone            2015
• Seeding tracks            playlists with large followings and            slow turnover of tracks is            as a business model in            own right
• Curated playlists            racing to the fore but            generated playlist penetration remains at           
• A decline            frequent creation of user generated            appears to be an unintended            of the rise of curated           
           of subscribers have stopped buying more than an album a month while            have stopped or reduced buying downloads
• A fifth            subscribers do not listen to            as much as when they            to buy them
• Just            of            streams were from complete album            in the US and UK            2015, translating into just            billion            albums streamed
• With a            per stream royalty rate of                       streams generate the same label            as a paid download 
• But the            of streaming cannot be truly            by measuring it against incumbent            streamsMusic subscribers in the US            UK streamed an average of            each in 2015, averaging            streams            week
• The average            income per album per streaming            is            with            flowing to the            and            to the songwriter
• Everyone from            through labels to services needs            think more creatively about what            on streaming to create a            album successor

Companies and services mentioned in this report: Apple Music, Digster, Dubsmash, Filtr, MTV Trax, Musical.ly, MusicQubed, Sony Music, Spotify, Tidal, Topsify, Universal Music, Vevo, Warner Music, YouTube