At the 7digital annual partner and press event - and the celebration of its 7th birthday, company co-founder Ben Drury stated boldly, “iTunes has peaked. Consumers are choosing other devices so its market share will be lower in 2012.” Spotify, he added, has “a lot to do with that”. It has been an interesting year for digital music, Drury said, with 2011 seeing digital music coming of age, accounting for more than 50% of recorded music revenue for most US labels and approaching 40% in the UK.
In an overview of the music industry, Drury pointed out that at one point people said the music industry was dead, but “In 2015 it will be worth $10 billion.” Piracy, he said, is still a big problem, and will never go away, “but people are beginning to really value legit” offerings. “It’s not all the US either, there is some cool stuff in the UK.” Other points to note included “the album is back” (digital albums are bigger than tracks by value) and access and ownership is shifting. While BPI research shows that of people polled, those who thought ownership was important had risen, so had the numbers of those who thought it was not important had also risen, with fewer people sitting on the fence.
The company also used the event to announce the opening of its US office, to be run by Vickie Nauman, who joined from Sonos, and has been serving as Vice President since Q4 2009 when the company acquired its US and Canadian music rights. “The last two years have been full of constant change in the digital landscape, and we’ve been steadily building our profile and partnerships in the US and Canada,” said Drury. “Vickie has led these efforts and will now lead an expanded presence with new staff and office. We look forward to being able to provide enhanced services to our customers and partners in 2012.”
Commenting on the North American business, Nauman added, “The US market has its own dynamics and needs, and as the digital music market evolves, it’s getting more difficult to find neutral, strategic partners, which is precisely the role we fulfill.”
Another announcement was the 7digital mobile service will be available in 2012 on Microsoft’s new range of Windows Phone devices. “We’re continuing to see demand from customers for access to their music on all their devices, regardless of the manufacturer or operating system,” Drury stated. “With the launch of our Windows Phone app, we’re continuing to work towards the realization of our vision to provide anytime anywhere access to music for our customers. 7digital is ‘platform agnostic’ and by working closely with Microsoft on its Windows devices we are closer to our goal of being able to give our customers access to their entire music collection on all of their devices, any time they want to access it.”
