Through an in-depth music survey we asked 1291 music fans across Europe, North America, South America and Asia about their current needs, issues and ideas. The main problems identified by music fans were wanting more unique, online content and better payouts for their favourite artists.
When working on any idea, service or product, validation is key: knowing what people really want and building products that closely resonate with that can mean the difference between an idea that ends up in no-man’s land and an innovation that ultimately changes the world. In order to make Platform X a product that truly addresses the needs of today’s market, we created an in-depth survey for music fans to tell us their habits and what they would like to see changed. To sweeten the deal, we put up a legendary pair of headphones to be randomly won among those who took the time and filled in our pretty long questionnaire. Huge thanks to everyone for your answers and congrats to cwilton for winning the headphones! Check out the draw with our colleagues from around the world:
The cornerstone of the survey was question #11, asking “If there was one thing you could change with [your favourite music act’s name] or the music industry in general to make it better… what would it be?”. It was a free-text question, respondents had to manually type in their answers, there was no list to pick from, so we didn’t suggest anything. After collating the responses, the main answer was wanting “More online and unique content”, closely followed by “Better artist payouts”. This was followed by “Issues with labels and rights”, “More physical merch (vinyl, etc)” and “Ticket prices for shows”.
Even though we started off as a record label, the responses above help us validate our pivot to building Platform X: a music platform that aims to bring the heart and soul of music closer to music fans in a digital age, and through that, help artists monetize. We believe music is about a lot more than pressing the play button or scrolling through endless feeds. There is so much more to music underneath when it comes to emotions, creativity, identity and belonging that matters just as much – perhaps even more.
Would music fans participate in such a future? It’s difficult to ask this question without painting the above dream first, which then would invalidate the answers we get. So we looked at ways music fans currently engage with their favourite artists when it comes to depth: actively following them, buying and wearing merch, travelling to another city to see a music act and showing their favourites to friends and family. We label those who do all four of these “Super fans”, as they have a definite affinity towards deeper music experiences, while we call those who don’t fit into the cohort “Casual listeners”. According to our research 48% of music fans are potential super fans, with 52% being casual listeners.
Knowing that there is such a need, where do music fans go to get those deeper experiences in the online world today? The number one response with 62.59% is Facebook, followed by artist websites at 40.43% and Instagram with 33.77%. Here is the thing though: none of these tools are great in helping with any of the issues brought forward by fans. Social media isn’t built with the vision of creating better music experiences and helping artists monetize, while the job of artists is not to create compelling online experiences for their fans. As a result, the need for in-depth music experiences of 48% of music fans is currently underserved in the online world – which is a strong opportunity for Platform X to jump into.
Take a look at the key results of our research yourself on an infographic by clicking the image below:
Click on the image above for the full infographic
Huge thanks to all 1291 people from around the world who took the time and filled in our survey. What’s next? We realise that our survey demographics skew towards males and a slightly older cohort, so balancing that out is definitely something for us to look at. Even more pressing, however, we also need to validate our premise from the artist’s side as well, so keep an eye out for a campaign targeting musicians soon!
(Image Illustration by Tim Mossholder)
