Content + Mindful
Content + Mindful
Log In
Lost your password?
Forgotten Password
Cancel
Content + Mindful
  • Home
  • Content Strategy
  • Content Mindfulness
  • About Me
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Content Strategy
  • Content Mindfulness
  • About Me
  • Contact
  • Content Strategy

    Advertising agency culture. The key to solving racism in the industry.

    June 15, 2020

  • Content Strategy

    The deliciously dangerous and euphoric period of a con game.

    June 23, 2020

  • Content Mindfulness

    Headphones. The condoms of content.

    June 9, 2020

  • Content Strategy

    The power of consistent content. What Facebook’s content lawsuit reveals.

    June 2, 2020

  • Content Strategy

    Businesses have a plan for essential workers. Automate the essential part.

    May 19, 2020

  • Content Mindfulness

    Breathe. You do it to live. Now use it to live better.

    May 12, 2020

  • Content Strategy

    Voice experiences will be the future or the end of your business.

    May 5, 2020

  • Content Mindfulness,Content Strategy

    How Can I Help?

    April 23, 2020

  • Content Strategy

    Working from home? Meet your new boss. Structure.

    April 21, 2020

  • Content Strategy

    The B(r)and is breaking up. How music services like Spotify are killing artist brands.

    April 14, 2020

  • Content Mindfulness,Content Strategy

    Don’t fear, embrace uncertainty. Opportunity waits on the other side.

    April 7, 2020

  • Content Strategy

    Call To Action (CTA) tips

    March 31, 2020

  • Small thinking leads to big things

    Content Mindfulness,Content Strategy

    As careers navigate COVID-19, big wins must start with small thinking.

    March 23, 2020

  • Content Mindfulness

    The gods of technology demand a sacrifice.

    March 17, 2020

  • Content Strategy

    When function follows form. And how content strategy is affected.

    March 10, 2020

  • Content Mindfulness

    Hey kids, want some yummy apps?

    March 3, 2020

  • Content Strategy

    What’s the buzz about buzzwords?

    February 25, 2020

  • Content Strategy

    Genderfication. Why women are woefully scarce in tech firms and tech firm leadership.

    February 18, 2020

  • Content Strategy

    The three types of writers.

    February 11, 2020

  • Content Mindfulness

    Can a minimalist buy a $1,400 iPhone?

    February 4, 2020

  • Content Strategy

    What is Natural Language Processing?

    January 28, 2020

  • Content Mindfulness,Uncategorized

    Health. Wealth. Love. Your three everyday happiness investments.

    January 21, 2020

  • Content Strategy

    Working and consulting in tech in 2020. Five predictions.

    January 15, 2020

  • Content Mindfulness,Content Strategy

    Looking back at 2019 to think forward: Hit Rewind Here.

    December 18, 2019

  • Content Mindfulness

    Looking back at 2019 to think forward: Happiness.

    December 13, 2019

  • Content Strategy

    Looking back at 2019 to think forward: Voice Assistants Killing Brands

    December 10, 2019

  • Content Mindfulness

    Looking back, thinking forward: Fight Club’s 20th Anniversary.

    December 5, 2019

  • Content Strategy

    Looking back, thinking forward: Kayfabe

    December 3, 2019

  • Content Mindfulness

    Why I’ve learned to accept grace.

    November 26, 2019

  • Content Strategy

    The needle in a haystack. Why the need for content strategy is universal and timeless.

    November 19, 2019

Content Strategy

The B(r)and is breaking up. How music services like Spotify are killing artist brands.

April 14, 2020 by Brooks Richey

Many of us love music streaming services like Spotify and Pandora.

We find it easy and comforting to have the music we love streaming in the background while lounging or working around the house.

What’s also great about it. Through analyzing our music selections and feedback, the music services are using AI and machine learning to get better and better at predicting what we like.

As a result, they are able to really hone in on playing the type of music that we want to hear.

As one friend mentioned about one of the streaming services, it “feels like they know me.”

While the streaming music services may “know us” and are savvy at delivering songs that we like to listen to, here’s something that you may end up not knowing: the name of the artist or song you are listening to.

You may not realize it, but the streaming services that we are increasingly listening to through our voice-UI devices like Alexa, Apple’s HomePod and Google Home are slowly divorcing us from the metadata (data that describes other data) around our music content.

Anyone familiar with these devices will know that any interaction with these devices either exists through your voice requests or via the audio the device delivers in response. No graphics or visual content is presented.

So while you hear a song, metadata such as the artist, the artist’s label and product information, like the album cover, get ignored or made invisible to users without a request by the users for that specific information.

Nice song. What’s the name? Who’s the artist?

Unless the user is already familiar with the artist or song, the user is essentially blind to artist information they hear on many streaming services. Instead, they are only able to see what their ears hear: the song. Not the artist metadata, like the album cover, artist picture, etc.

That metadata makes a difference for identity and brand.

Remember what music was like pre-streaming or if you had digital music that had metadata built into the music file? If you do, you probably realized you gained an extra connection to parts of an artist through that data.

AC-DC’s bold logo on their album covers or iconic covers like Nirvana’s baby-swimming-in-a-pool Nevermind album gave identity and a visually memorable brand context around their music.

A visceral connection because the images around an artist you listen to often become so closely tied with the moments you experienced with the music. For that not to happen would be like going to the senior prom and not remember what anyone wore or the decorations. Just the songs. Not likely. They’re inseparable.

Yet in streaming music and metadata they’re being separated.

Your interaction with the music through a streaming device is usually about telling the voice UI what you want to hear. In playback, the service rarely tells you who the artist is. Unlike radio, there is rarely a DJ telling you that the song was “Closer” by Halsey to help brand the music experience you just had or are about to have.

So with little exposure to branding cues, your music service is adding new artists that you like into your feed without a second thought or glance by you. Or without those special, brand-able connections.

Soon, the ratio of great songs you are discovering may soon begin to outweigh the contextual information that you know about them. Unless you ask Alexa or use a music scanner like Shazam, the song and artist are invisible.

On streaming services, artists make percentages of a penny in royalties for each song you listen to. For many money isn’t in streaming. It’s in touring and merchandising. Two things where a good brand is extremely valuable.

So for artists who need their name and brand recognized in order to promote and make money in merchandise and on the road, losing their identity via streaming services could be a problem.

Sad song goes here. I don’t care which artist. Just play something I like, Alexa.

 

  • facebook
  • twitter
  • google plus
  • pinterest
  • Previous readingDon’t fear, embrace uncertainty. Opportunity waits on the other side.
  • Next reading Working from home? Meet your new boss. Structure.
2018. Content and Mindful. All rights reserved.