We all know that streaming music on our mobile devices have become the new normal, but what about mobile sharing of music? In the past year, a “slew of personalized mobile sharing apps” have invaded the tech space. Apps such as Boomio, Rithm, Undrtone & Radeeus, just to name a few, allow users to directly send a song to their friends via text based messages (as opposed to sending a link). Last year’s IFPI report projected that mobile listening market penetration will be at 36% in 2016, up 12.9% from 2012. In the words of EVP of digital partner development at Sony Music, Ole Oberman, “That equates to two billion potential music service customers worldwide”.
The proliferation of music apps is good news for the music industry, who have been suffering from the lack of album sales in the past 5 years. As interest and popularity for music streaming platforms grows, more people will likely be willing to spend money on a monthly subscription. Although, the numbers will probably never be as high as when the music industry was at its peak with physical album sales, these subscriptions will help the industry make up for the loss of revenue that they have seen over the years.
To actively take advantage of the growing interest in music streaming, there needs to be changes and innovations made in mobile music and music apps. Music sharing apps, such as Boomio have emerged as one answer to the problem. Boomio, the snapchat of music, allows users to send one “boom” to their friends/followers. Each boom is a one-song play, which is followed with a text message that gives the option for users to purchase the song on itunes, or play it again in one’s own personal feed. The founders of Boomio say that through the app they are “teaching new behaviors”. Music was originally a communal activity, so by sharing music through boom, they are hoping that people will start enjoying music communally again.
Dove tailing off of this idea, another app, Radeeus has emerged as a a “global headphone splitter, where users can listen to music together in real time, no matter where in the world they are”.
However, as innovative, and useful/useless, depending on your view, these apps are having a hard time taking off because of the inflexibilities of consumers. Last august’s ComScore report found that in terms of app usage: an average person spends 42% of total app time on their most used app and 69% of total app time on their top 3 most used app. What this means is that people are so loyal to the apps they are used to and comfortable with that it makes it hard for them to integrate new apps into their time (even if they are better or easier to use than their current ones)-- which also means that, it is very, very difficult for upstart music messaging apps to take an uphold.
