subscription

FROM TODAY'S EARLY EDITION: First broken by The Verge (here), now both The New York Times (here) and The Wall Street Journal (here) are also reporting that Google is expected to announce a subscription streaming music service later today at Google I/O, the company's annual developers conference.

The company reportedly has finalized licensing deals with all three major record label groups. The new service will reportedly resemble services like Spotify more than traditional webcast services (like Pandora -- which presumably will be the model for Apple's "iRadio" service that's expected).

The new Google streaming service will reportedly not include a free version. The fee isn't known at this point, but is expected to be similar to that of Spotify and other services like Rhapsody and Rdio, $10 a month.

The new service is actually one of two music services Google reportedly has in the works. Google-owned YouTube is also said to be developing a music service, and negotiations with labels continuing.

Jerry Del Colliano in his Inside Music Media suggests Google is "looking to deliver a deathblow to music radio" with it to-be-announced-today streaming music service.

But Google's will be a subscription service. Sources say there won't even be a free option. And that's radio's opportunity, Del Colliano suggests.

Being "the curator of music discovery for free." Radio can't compete with the customization and on-demand features online services from well-funded companies can offer. But radio can continue to be the "music authority for popular genres."

But, should these services successfully pull away radio listeners, as Colliano says is their intent, music subscription could become the norm for discovery for new generations of fans.

"Damage radio and a streaming subscription becomes as essential to a Millennial as a subscription to Netflix or Hulu," he warns. "It's about being the Netflix for music."

Subscribe to Inside Music Media here.

Digital Music News editor Paul Resnikoff asks, "Do consumers really care about having every last song at their fingertips, millions of songs deep?"

While streaming music services like Spotify, Rdio, and Rhapsody seem to think so, as they tout library size as a major feature, most listeners don't care, concludes DMN.

"This matters far less than the industry thinks."

SiriusXM has over 24 million subscribers, dwarfing any other music subscription service. But "Sirius has selection, and even Pandora-like stations. But you're not picking the songs, playlisting, or otherwise DJing with millions of deep tracks. You're driving, working, reading, sleeping, or doing something else, while someone else is curating an ultimately limited selection."

Another example: Pandora, with a far more limited library and lacking the on-demand component, it's topped 200 million registered users.

"Many consumers will say they want everything, but actually don't," Resinkoff wrote. "And all you have to do is look at virtually any chart from any 'comprehensive' streaming service. Because even with the widest selection imaginable, the world's chosen playlist is amazingly thin."

Read this entire article from Digital Music News here.

As expected, Google formally announced its new online music subscription service, Google Play Music All Access today at its Google I/O developer conference.

The company is touting the service as "radio without rules," according to The Verge. It reports the All Access service "allows users to create radio stations from particular artists — providing comparable functionality without any of the limitations," but went into no further detail. One might assume the "functionality" is "comparable" to Pandora and other such services, but "without any of the limitations" of the statutory webcast license, which prohibits on-demand song plays, going backwards in a stream to re-hear a song, etc. (We delved a little further into these matters yesterday here.) 

By and large, it's music subscription of the Spotify/Rdio sort: $9.99/month unlimited on-demand access and playlist features, for computers and Android devices. Listeners can access both "local" music (which they have stored on their computer or handheld) as well as Google's streaming-available collection, as a single "master library." The service includes a "recommendation engine" to help listeners discover new music based on their preferences. Google is offering a 30-day free trial, and if you sign up by the end of June, it's just $7.99/month.

Read more from The Verge here.

Triton Digital president of publisher development Dominick Milano acknowledged that there's a "disconnect" between the unprecedented amount of audio consumption made possible by Internet and mobile technology, and the fact that advertising dollars haven't moved to those platforms in levels reflective of the audience. That "disconnect" served as the premise for the Triton Digital-sponsored "Accelerating Your Revenue" panel, which Milano (at right) moderated, at last month's RAIN Summit West event in Las Vegas.

The panel covered the three principal revenue models for online radio: advertising, premium (or subscription), and listener-supported (i.e. donations).

Katz360 VP of broadcast services and online audio and video sales Dean Mandel suggested one key is the right combination of broadcast radio and online radio -- not only for ad campaigns, but in creating worthwhile listening experiences. He encouraged radio programmers to "take better advantage" of what technology has to offer to improve their online product.

"The programmers are brilliant and if they can come up with interesting content to fill instead of a lot of PSAs and ads, it will help grow the audience," Mandel (left) said.

He said he sees lots of value in what sets local broadcasting apart from national/global database-driven music webcasters: a local brand, personalities, and local content.

Mandel is also a big supporter of targeting advertising, and suggested effective listener-registration helps a lot. His "pro-tip" was for stations to look for online listening happening in markets outside your own that may command higher CPMs (his example was a Charlotte station that might have significant listening in New York City).

He also suggested that media buyers have indeed become sophisticated, and being able to provide them with targeting and third-party tagging on audio will raise CPMs.

Andrew Polsky, as VP of digital media for SBS Interactive, also deals in the advertising world. He says what his company needs is "advocacy" at the agency and buyer level, especially for the Hispanic market.

His company, aside from Hispanic-focused broadcast and online radio, owns MegaTV (video content and network) and SBS Entertainment (which is concert production). Key for him is being able to leverage all the properties as a unified platform, "offering a 360 approach to advertisers," and using content from one property on the others (see his company's LaMusica mobile app as an example).

Polsky (right) seconded Mandel's notion that there needs to be a better solution than "PSAs" to fill long stopsets when streaming broadcast content.

Michael Jackel, who is Spotify VP of West Coast advertising sales, also agreed about the power of being able to target listener groups for advertising (he addressed the perception of his company as a "subscription service," but insisted Spotify is a "dual-model" business with the large majority of its users accessing via free, ad-supported streaming).

Moderator Milano asked Jackel (left) if there were a model for subscription alone to work -- or if services need a free version to remain viable.

"If the value proposition is really there, pure subscription can work," Jackel answered. "Spotify has a great product that's free, but the premium is a great value proposition." He said, in the U.S. especially, people are used to "free," so Spotify's free streaming makes sense. "Pandora isn't winning on the subscription model because there's not that much value to their premium service," Jackel went on. "Few people will pay just to 'not have ads'. You have to offer something that's really compelling in order for people to pay for it."

Compelling content is also key to driving donation revenue for listener-supported stations, like Joe Gallagher's MVYRadio.com. After some background on WMVY-FM and its early foray into streaming (Net Radio Sales, now Katz360 and AndoMedia/Webcast Metrics, now owned by Triton Digital, were both born of these efforts), Gallagher said successful donation support relys on offering content that "serves a niche, serves a vertical" and allows for "a passionate connection" with listeners.

Gallagher is the "#1 volunteer" for Friends of MVYRadio, the non-profit 501(c)3 that runs the (now) Internet-only, listener-supported station (more in RAIN here). He's also president and CEO of Aritaur Communications, former owners of WMVY-FM. He says his listener-supported model has "worked well, really well," and allowed for year-over-year growth for the past four years. The station recently raised the necessary $600k to operate for the rest of the year.

Gallagher (right) explained that listener targeting allows him to (for example) entice donations from L.A.-area listeners by giving away tickets for a concert there.

Milano polled the panel on the likely entrance of Apple into online radio. Katz360's Manel said, "It'll grow the business, it's a good thing. It might make local AM/FM focus more on their local value proposition" -- again, meaning the personalities and local content.

Spotify's Jackel said, "It's good. When (Apple) come(s) in, advertisers and Wall Street will see the value... it lifts the industry, it publicizes other businesses, to consumers AND advertisers."

You can listen to audio coverage of this panel, and all of RAIN Summit West's content, at kurthanson.com (look in the right-hand margin).

Triton Digital CCO and general manager of data and measurement Rob Favre and SVP and general manager of international markets Jay Supovitz will be part of RAIN Summit Europe, May 23 at Brussels' Hotel Bloom. Spotify's Benelux managing director Tom Segers will also be there. Info and registration links are on the RAIN Summit Europe page.

Late yesterday Fortune reported that YouTube will launch a subscription music service later this year. This service, apparently, will be in addition to the rumored Google subscription service (Google owns YouTube).

"The two new services are defined by their respective places in the Google empire: Google Play for Android is a digital locker for music -- users buy, store, and sort a collection of tracks; but on YouTube's coming service, anyone can listen to tracks for free," Fortune wrote. "Both services are said to be adding a subscription fee that will unlock additional features. For the YouTube-based service, this will likely mean ad-free access."

Read Fortune here.