Top 3 Trends Impacting Global Digital Music Content Market Through 2020
Technavio’s latest report on the global digital music content market provides an analysis on the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook from 2016-2020. Technavio defines an emerging trend as a factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline.
Ujjwal Doshi, a lead analyst from Technavio, specializing in research on media and entertainment services sector, says, “The global digital music content market is expected to grow at a CAGR of close to 9% during the forecast period. The growing popularity of the digital music content has encouraged artists to provide their singles and albums through the digital streaming platforms as there is a drop in sales of CDs and vinyl records ever since these platforms have evolved.”
The top three emerging trends driving the global digital music content market according to Technavio media & entertainment research analysts are:
* Globalization of music streaming services
* Replacement of digital music records
* Rise in demand for wearable music devices
Globalization of music streaming services
Music streaming services are becoming a global service with developments in technology infrastructure and freedom to access music from almost anywhere in the world. Key vendors, primarily in the US, Japan, and Sweden are investing heavily in research and directing their efforts to acquire a larger share of the market through technological advances.
The growth aspects of music streaming services are positive as a number of emerging countries are also entering the market. Therefore, increasing globalization of the music streaming services during the forecast period will contribute to the generation of revenues in the global digital music content market.
Replacement of digital music records
The digital music content market is witnessing a gradual replacement of digital music records and CDs by a number of other options such as portable storage devices like iPods, multimedia players, and cloud-storage services. Peoples’ preference for listening to music has shifted from digital records and music systems to cloud-based music that allows users to store, stream, download, and share the content. Cloud computing is being rapidly adopted by firms because it provides legal access to online music, even from remote servers, irrespective of the device used.
Services like iTunes Match have become a market reality and have increased the popularity of music downloads. “Companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Google are dependent on the cloud for various features including storage, which acts as a remote locker for downloaded tracks. Such developments are expected to help content companies generate higher revenues from the digital music business,” says Ujjwal.
Rise in demand for wearable music devices
Wearable technology is an emerging trend in the global music streaming market. Smartphone manufacturers are investing heavily in wearable devices to give users an overall experience. For instance, the Apple Watch, along with displaying time, helps users track health, access maps, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, music, and sync with their iPhone. Another example is Rusty’s wired series, which is a hoody with earphones that double as the elastic strings of the hood. It reduces the hassle of wearing headphones while listening to music.
It is expected that in the coming years, digital music content developers and vendors will focus on developing applications and interfaces which are compatible with wearable devices to enable direct access to music.
Source: Technavio
