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Next Steps For Music Video How Music Videos Miss Much Of The YouTube Opportunity

Report by Tim Mulligan
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The 20,000 Foot View The music video has undergone a major transformation since its original conceptualization in the 1970s and commercialization in the 1980s. Originally a tool to drive sales, MTV transformed it into a product in its own right and then YouTube did the same thing for the digital era. This was not really a problem right up until the 2010s because consumers were still discovering and buying music as a result of watching the video. Now though YouTube, and by default music video, has become the end destination for most consumers – especially younger ones - rather than part of the music discovery journey.

Key Findings

  • Music Video            now the main way consumers            with music digitally
  • Music video            outgrew audio streams in 2015            music is losing ground on            relative to native creators
  • Music artist            label channels represented just            of            most subscribed YouTube channels in            2015 
  • Though artist            label channels made up            of            native YouTubers outperformed again with           
  •            of consumers watch music videos on YouTube while            watched an artist’s YouTube channel
  • Video plays            the strengths of smartphones in            that the static audio file           
  • YouTube is            media consumption platform of choice            digital natives, especially Generation Edge
  •            of YouTube music viewers are aged under           
  • Fewer than            third of consumers buy music            discovering new acts via streaming
  • A quarter            streaming consumers follow newly discovered            on social platforms
  • Only            of            viewing growth for YouTube’s fastest            channels are music related
  • YouTube stars            the importance of authenticity for             audiencesRecord labels and artists need            build music video strategies designed            YouTube in 2016 not YouTube            2010

Companies mentioned in this report: Comedy Central, Facebook, Instagram, NBC, Spinnin’ Records, Spotify, Twitter, YouTube,

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