In our Biglight Briefing on 24th June, we were joined by Will Page, former Chief Economist at Spotify and PRS, to explore what retail brands can learn from the music industry’s journey from potential oblivion to recovery.
Will was the music industry’s first ever economist (or rockonomist, as he prefers) when he joined PRS in 2006 and by the time he left to join Spotify six years later he had firmly demonstrated the importance of understanding the economics of music.
As retail brands reel from the impact of the coronavirus crisis he believes that they have a lot to learn from the music industry that has a 20-year head-start in tackling and responding to disruption. In his view we are all facing our Napster moment.
Will’s fascinating presentation drew on real world, first hand experience from his time at Spotify, and explored the following topics:
- How the music industry beat piracy at its own game by creating something better than stealing - a convenient and frictionless customer experience.
- How the growth of paid streaming heralded an increase in spend on live music and the impact on this of the coronavirus crisis.
- How the massive increase in choice means it is now our time that is scarce, rather than the media we consume - sleep is the new competition.
- How, as the one-to-many broadcast model has been replaced by many one-to-one curated interactions - we no longer search, as algorithms do it better.
If you missed Will’s presentation, you can still benefit from his insights - the whole session is available to watch at your leisure here - we hope you find it as interesting and enjoyable as we did.
A big thank you to Will for taking part and to our partners Tech Circus for their support.
What’s Up Next? Beyond Skin Deep
There’s more to come. Our next Biglight Briefing is on 5th August at 11:00 BST, when we will be joined by Deborah Stead, Founder & CEO of Deborah Stead Associates, currently UK market lead & DTC consultant at L’Occitane Group’s Duolab, and Jane Cunningham, beauty journalist and content creator at Britishbeautyblogger.com.
Together, we will explore the lessons retail brands can learn from the beauty industry and its customer relationships - with digital channels to the fore - how do beauty brands engage customers, encouraging them to buy without the ability to try out products first?
As usual, it's remote and it’s free!