Monday, October 12, 2009

Sky To Enter The Music Streaming Business

So Sky has announced that it is to launch an online music service that will offer customers access to more than four million music tracks for download and streaming. Instead of a single subscription they have chosen two, one at £6.49 a month, which allows the download of one album or 10 individual track and another at £7.99, which increases the track to 15. However the albums appear to be priced differently some at £6.49 and other at £7.99 and dependant to your subscription is what you can download. Without even trying to understand their logic it is madness! All Sky broadband customers who access the site will receive a free downloadable album worth £6.49.
Sky is obviously looking to build yet more subscriptions to their TV ones but there again where’s the bundle offer?

We think that iTunes has built its brand and loyal users and others such as Spotify are clearly giving everyone a run for their money and there is always Napster. Will the subscription model work? Will consumers wake up and realise ownership doesn’t make sense and flip to the streamed model? Will players such as Sky be able to cross brand and cash in on the new models?

What is clear is that streaming is happening and people are warming to it. What is also clear is that anybody can play.

No comments: