The idea of ‘windowing’ a release – so that only certain listeners can stream an artist’s new work for a set period before it goes live everywhere – was all the rage a few years back.
Example: When Spotify and Universal Music Group inked their renewed 2017 global licensing deal, Daniel Ek proudly announced that UMG artists could now “choose to release new albums on premium only for two weeks, offering subscribers an earlier chance to explore the complete creative work, while the singles are available across Spotify for all our listeners to enjoy”.
For whatever reason, though, discussion around (and industry interest in) windowing – in the Western music industry, at least – quickly petered out.
Outside of China, today the prospect of an artist making new material only available to paying ‘super-fans’ on streaming platforms is rarely discussed in the music biz, let alone demanded.
But when you look at things logically, with a dash of sensible hindsight, this development is a bit of a head-scratcher.
Five years ago, one big argument against exclusively ‘windowing’ an artist’s release was that it could potentially harm the fragile growth of streaming subscriptions globally – or even drive fans to free and/or illegal music platforms.
As 2017 began, there were only around 112 million users of subscription accounts on audio streaming platforms worldwide (source: IFPI).
Yet today, in 2022, things already look very different.
There are now comfortably over half a billion users of subscription streaming accounts globally, for one thing.
Plus, in the face of macro-economic headwinds and slowing global subscription growth, the music industry seems to be continually asking itself: How can we better monetize existing streaming users, especially those who are super-fans of certain artists?
Audiomack, the streaming and discovery service that now reaches more than 20 million monthly users, believes it might have the answer.
