The Commoditization of Streaming Music Services
Streaming music services haven’t yet taken off in Canada like they have in other parts of the world despite us having full access to companies Rdio, Slacker, Mediazoic, The Vault, Deezer and a few others. (Spotify and Pandora still elude us and we won’t get Apple’s offering when it’s launched later this year–at least not at first.)
Still, we streaming is the future. We need to keep up-to-date on how things are developing in other parts of the world because we’ll all be playing on a level playing field one day.
This is from Brad Hill writing in today’s RAIN newsletter:
From “unique innovator” to “a face in the crowd.” That is the typical startup trajectory of a product that establishes a new consumer category.
The loss of first-mover advantage can happen fast, as with Apple’s iPhone, which first came to market in 2007 and in five years was locked in a global marketshare struggle with Android phones (and Microsoft and RIM products to a lesser extent).
Category competition tends to blunt innovation as it locks in standardization. For many smartphone buyers, there is little to differentiate an iPhone from an Android phone -– from the basic functions to the industrial design to the on-screen interface. What was once unique becomes commonplace.
Streaming music services have become similarly commoditized, thanks to suddenly increased consumer uptake and demand.
The commoditization curve has been relatively slow for Internet radio; during its early years the streaming/subscription platforms were dimmed by the shadow of iTunes and the quick mainstreaming of the music-download market. The Rhapsody subscription service launched at the end of 2001, and while there have been ownership changes and product enhancements, the core listening and discovery system has remained steady. From the first, Rhapsody and similar startups offered music access as an alternative to locally stored music ownership.
