1. Overview of Spotify
Spotify is the world's largest music streaming service with over 182 million active
subscribers. It offers access to over 82 million songs and a variety of podcasts. Spotify's
success can be attributed to a number of factors, including its large and diverse library
of music, its user-friendly interface, and its powerful recommendation algorithm.
Spotify has also been successful in expanding into new markets and developing new
products, such as its podcast platform and its live audio streaming service.
Spotify has achieved many milestones over the years, including:
In 2011, Spotify launched in the United States, its first market outside of Europe.
In 2013, Spotify reached 10 million subscribers.
In 2014, Spotify launched its first original podcast, "Serial."
In 2018, Spotify reached 100 million subscribers.
In 2022, Spotify reached 182 million subscribers.
2. Spotify’s campaign
“The Beat of a Billion” is a marketing campaign by Spotify, an audio streaming
platform, aimed at launching their product in India, a potential market with over a billion
consumers. The campaign is based on the idea of finding a musical beat that matches
the preferences and emotions of Indian people, by using neuroscience and machine
learning solutions. Spotify collected and analyzed data on the emotional responses of
participants when they listened to the most popular songs in India, thereby identifying
the most impactful sounds and melodies. This information was then used to collaborate
with music creators to create a beat for Spotify’s product introduction video. The
campaign generated a lot of attention and helped increase Spotify’s sales in India.
Spotify users can explore, and experience millions of new tracks generated by artificial
intelligence through playlists, albums, and random play. Each song in "The Beat of a
Billion" brings a distinct style, ranging from traditional genres like pop, rock, and hiphop to more experimental and unconventional genres.
The campaign also encourages Spotify users to interact with artificial intelligence by
providing feedback and ratings on the songs they listen to. Through user data collection,
the AI can understand and learn from everyone’s music preferences, thereby providing
increasingly personalized and relevant experiences over time.
"The Beat of a Billion" not only offers a fresh music experience but also explores and
harnesses the potential of artificial intelligence in the realm of art. This campaign marks
a significant milestone in the development of AI-generated music and opens doors to
limitless creativity and exploration in the future.
Through "The Beat of a Billion" campaign, Spotify hopes that users will enjoy the
unique and emotionally evocative melodies brought forth by artificial intelligence,
while also driving the advancement and application of AI in the music industry.
3. Source of brand equity
3.1. Brand awareness
- Learning advantages
+ Unlimited creativity: AI can analyze and learn from millions of songs available
on platforms like Spotify. This allows AI to create new melodies, combining
elements from different songs to create unique and creative music that humans
may never have thought of.
+ Automate and enhance the composition process: Using AI can help save time
and effort in the music composition process. AI can analyze musical elements
such as melody, timbre, tempo, and lyrics, create instrumental parts, edit sounds,
and even write lyrics. This helps artists focus more on composing and expressing
themselves.
+ Personalize music listening experience: AI can analyze user data and
understand their music preferences. Based on this information, AI can
recommend songs, playlists, or artists that are relevant to each specific listener.
This creates a personalized listening experience and helps users discover new
music easily.
+ Expand and develop the music industry: Using AI in music opens up many
new opportunities for artists, producers, and listeners. AI can help create highquality music, expand the reach of songwriting, and empower emerging artists.
It can also make music distribution easier and enhance the online music listening
experience.
- Consider advantages:
+ Loss of originality and individuality: While AI can create new music, it may
lack the sophistication and emotion that only humans can bring. This can take
away the uniqueness and individuality of man-made creations.
+ Limit creativity: While AI can create new music, it often operates based on
patterns and rules learned from data. This can limit your ability to be creative
and discover new music, preventing you from coming up with completely new
ideas.
+ Loss of humanity and connection: An important part of music is the ability to
create connection and interaction between artists and listeners. The use of
artificial intelligence can take away this humanity and connection, as it cannot
feel and react like humans.
- Choice advantages
+ Strong brand recognition: Spotify is a well-known and trustworthy brand in
the global music streaming market. This gives the brand a significant advantage
over local competitors. In addition, the campaign helped the brand increase its
visibility and establish a strong brand in the Indian music industry. Creating
high-quality content and actively interacting with users can help strengthen their
position in the market.
+ Wide selection of music: Creating links with local culture helps Spotify connect
with distinct Indian culture and music. This can create a stronger connection
between the brand and Indian users, making them feel the brand understands and
respects their values. It will build trust from users because it demonstrates
Spotify's commitment to the Indian market and its desire to integrate into the
country's diverse music culture.
+ Personalized recommendations: It can create a coherent theme for Spotify,
helping them stand out from the crowd and generate lasting memories. In
addition, promoting interaction can create opportunities for Spotify to interact
with the Indian audience community through other interactive activities, thereby
strengthening relationships with customers. Besides, Spotify has also partnered
with several local music labels and artists. This gives it access to a wide range of
Indian music content, which is essential for success in the Indian market.
+ Affordable pricing: Spotify offers a variety of subscription plans, including a
free plan with limited features. This makes it affordable for Indian consumers,
who are generally price-sensitive.
Overall, Spotify has several choice advantages in the Indian market. These advantages
give it a strong chance of success in this rapidly growing market.
- Establishing brand awareness
To reach the target audience of young Indians, particularly those who enjoy both Indian
and international music, the brand has come up with ideas and plans to promote its
reputation.
Spotify has started conducting music video promotional activities for "Now in India"
on major platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The MV
garnered enthusiastic responses with over 155,000 social media interactions.
Additionally, Spotify used Instagram to create stories related to the daily lives of
Indians.
Besides, the Spotify app generated playlists to cater to the diverse music preferences of
the target audience. They also created banners leading to a playlist named "The Beat of
a Billion," featuring songs with similar melodies.
Lastly, Spotify's team employed out-of-home advertising in six cities across India with
500 outdoor advertising locations and digital banners. This aimed to enhance brand
recognition. Through the "Billion Beats" campaign, Spotify achieved impressive results
and increased the brand's visibility in the Indian market.
3.2. Brand image:
- Brand identity:
Spotify uses a simple design with the main color tones of white and green along with a
sound wave design to represent the company's service of providing digital music,
podcasts, and videos.
- Brand association:
Spotify is a music app that has millions of songs around the world. You can create your
own playlist or Spotify's AI will recommend and create playlists based on your
preferences for you.
- Brand attributes:
Spotify is a music app that creates playlists of your favorite songs every day and offers
millions of songs and other content from artists around the world. Besides, Spotify is
also a music application that gives you the best music listening experience.
- Brand benefit:
Other brands can easily reach the public through Spotify ads, singers can also promote
their new albums through Spotify.
4. Identify and establish brand positioning
- Basic Concept:
Spotify is a music streaming service that offers access to a library of over 82 million
songs and a variety of podcasts. It is known for its user-friendly interface, powerful
recommendation algorithm, and wide range of features.
India is a country with a young population and a growing love of music, moreover, it
has a large and growing market. However, there are obstacles like: fierce competition
from local streaming services, the lack of a widespread habit of listening to licensed
music, and user preferences for local music.
The Beat of a Billion is a campaign by Spotify to create a song that would appeal to the
majority of Indians. Using neuroscience and AI to analyze the listening behavior of
Indian listeners and create a melody that was both catchy and emotionally resonant, the
melody was then used in a series of marketing campaigns in India.
- Brand positioning
Spotify's brand positioning in India is as a music streaming service that offers a wide
range of music, including Indian music, and that is tailored to the needs of Indian
listeners.
Spotify uses its brand positioning to differentiate itself from other music streaming
services in India, such as Gaana and JioSaavn, which focus on Indian music.
"The Beat of a Billion" campaign was a success, helping the company to increase its
market share in India to 4% and reach 1 million users within a week of its launch.
- Good brand positioning
Investing heavily in the Indian market by partnering with local artists and labels to make
their music available on the platform.
Developing features and services that are tailored to the needs of Indian listeners, such
as a free plan with limited ads.
Executing well-executed marketing campaigns that resonate with Indian listeners,
such as the "The Beat of a Billion" campaign.
- The optimal points-of-parity (POP):
● Wide range of music, including Indian music
● High-quality audio streaming
● Affordable pricing
- Points-of-difference brand associations (POD):
● Tailored to Indian needs, such as the ability to download songs for
offline playback and the ability to create playlists in Hindi and other
Indian languages
● Culturally relevant marketing, such as the "The Beat of a Billion"
campaign
-> Spotify's POPs are important for competing in the Indian music streaming market,
where there are several other established players, such as Gaana and JioSaavn.
Spotify's wide range of music, high-quality audio streaming, and affordable pricing
make it a competitive option for Indian listeners.
However, Spotify's PODs are what make it truly unique and appealing to Indian
listeners. Spotify's focus on tailoring its services to the needs of Indian listeners is
evident in features such as the ability to download songs for offline playback and the
ability to create playlists in Hindi and other Indian languages. Spotify's culturally
relevant marketing campaigns, such as the "The Beat of a Billion" campaign, have
also helped to resonate with Indian listeners.