Page 56 - AC/E's Digital Culture Annual Report 2015

Cultural business models on the Internet56The digital music experience has shifted quickly from listening on computers with landline connections to listening on mobiles, tablets or other devices while carrying out some everyday activity. The growth of the music industry in the digital world is so fast that in only three years digital revenues from advertising-funded subscription and streaming services have gone from a low 14% to 27%.I personally believe that, despite the major chal- lenge of adapting to the change of model brought about by modifications in consumption habits and how music is accessed, music is enjoyingone of its best moments: as it is more accessible, people listen to more music, and it is more present in other media, in ringing tones, etc...In only three years digital revenues from advertising-funded subscription and streaming services have gone from a low 14% to 27%.Therefore, the fundamental challenges lie both in the companies that provide these services and in artists, whose work is reaching more people.Music, more than any other component of the culture sector, has gone from being a product to a service, where the Internet plays the leading role as a platform for “mouth to ear”.As previously, I am reflecting on this while aware of the challenges of promoting and capturing new audiences: is being able to work throughout the cycle of people’s access to music not one of the main challenges? Is it not quite a challengeto be able to work on creating unique experienc- es even before the person learns about my music product? How can I find out the extensionof the network of the person who comes into contact with my music, so that they spread it, in turn, to their friends and circles?Once again, all these challenges revolve around the ability to get to know the person and to establish a lasting relationship with them.Scalable models for digital strategy in the culture sectorThe culture sector is assimilating the impact of the Internet and new technologies and tryingto understand this new environment, as well as attempting to identify, together with the content industry, new business models.How “transmedia” publishing content will be consumed, who will create new cultural content and how, what the effect of new digital relations between writers, readers and publishers is... who will be the new Spotify for books and how, what new economic models will emerge, how creators’ rights will be protected... As stated earlier, these are just some of the main challenges that must be addressed.But, as is often the case, what for some is a gloomy outlook for others is a major business opportunity waiting to be discovered. Over the past ten years, although many companies in the culture sector have undergone drastic changes in their business model, the rise of the Internet has marked the beginning of the decline of a model for some, and the beginning of a comeback forInbound for the cultural world