Listening Habits

So if music is completely free, how will people listen? Will they just download their favorite songs or the ones they hear on terrestrial radio? Will they download individual songs or complete albums?

A recent story out of Denmark provides some interesting answers to some of these questions. For instance, TDC, a provider of landline and mobile services in Denmark, recently provided free and unlimited music downloads to paying subscribers. The numbers are quite astounding. Since inception, more than 60 million songs have been downloaded. This is out of a population of 5.4 million. And albums are downloaded more than single songs.

This is pretty important news for the broader industry. Many decry the loss of the album. Yet, when music is presented for free, at least in Denmark’s case, consumers wanted to hear the whole album. I think consumers have just been so burned in the past with $15 albums that included 1 – 2 good songs, that when money is involved, consumers will choose the safe option of the song that they know. This is similar to Nine Inch’s Nail’s philosophy of giving the album away for free because of the desire to have fans hear the album as a whole, as a story, as opposed to an individual track.

Hopefully more studies like this come out. This one is fascinating.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com