The top 10 music downloads & radio plays in Europe in 2011

"Top ten downloads in Europe 2011:
1. Adele – Someone Like You
2. Adele – Rolling In The Deep
3. Alexandra Stan – Mr Saxobeat
4. Adele – Set Fire To The Rain
5. Example – Changed The Way You Kiss Me
6. DJ Antoine vs Timati feat Kalenna – Welcome To St Tropez
7. Duck Sauce – Barbra Streisand
8. Adele – Make You Feel My Love
9. Caro Emerald – A Night Like This
10. Tiesto vs Diplo – C’mon (Catch Em By Surprise)

Top ten radio airplay in Europe 2011:
1. Adele – Rolling In The Deep
2. Adele – Set Fire To The Rain
3. Alexandra Stan – Mr Saxobeat
4. Adele – Someone Like You
5. Caro Emerald – A Night Like This
6. Duck Sauce – Barbra Streisand
7. Example – Changed The Way You Kiss Me
8. Inna – Sun Is Up
9. DJ Antoine vs Timati feat Kalenna – Welcome To St Tropez
10. Alexandra Stan – Get Back"

Source:  Chart by IMPALA, reported by CMU, 8th March 2012

Offline advertising spend grew 13% in China in 2011

"According to Chinese ad spend figures released by CCTV market research subsidiary CTR, China's traditional advertising market (comprising television, print, radio, and outdoor media) grew by 13% YoY in 2011, the same rate as in 2010. Television advertising revenues grew by 13%; radio advertising revenues, by 28%; outdoor media, by 1%, with 26% growth in subway advertising and 25% and 34% growth, respectively, in public transportation TV displays and LCD screens installed in office buildings. The top five industries by ad spending in 2011 were cosmetics and bathing products, business and service industries, beverages, foods, and medicine."

Source:  Xinhaunet, via Marbridge Daily, 14th February 2012

Spotify has 3m paying subscribers

"Music subscription services may prove to be the saving grace for the recording industry. Three million people are now actively tuning in to Spotify, the song streaming platform once criticized for paying paltry royalties to record labels. Spotify has gained a million users since September, largely due to getting plugged into Facebook's social sharing."
Source:  Rolling Stone, 27th January 2012
Earlier - 2.5m in November

Spotify is the second single largest source of digital music revenue for labels in Europe

"Artists can — and do — receive very substantial revenues from Spotify, and as Spotify grows, these revenue streams will naturally continue to grow. Spotify is now the second single largest source of digital music revenue for labels in Europe (IFPI, April 2011) and we’ve driven more than $150 million of revenue to rights holders (ie whoever owns the music, be it artists, publishers or labels) since our launch three years ago.”"

Source:  Statement from Spotify, quoted in Wired, 18th November 2011

Spotify has 2.5m paying subscribers

"This week is Thanksgiving in the US. And we’ve got our own reasons to give thanks too.
Fanfare! Drum roll! Yes, we’re excited to announce that we’ve now welcomed 2.5 million paying subscribers to the service.
So we’d like to say a big thank you to all our subscribers, new and old. Keep spreading the good news about Spotify!
Of course, we’ll continue to focus on providing you with the best music service possible. We’ve got some exciting developments in the works, which we’ll share with you very soon."

Source:  Blog post by Spotify, 23rd November 2011

Earlier - 2m subscribers announced in September

Earlier - 1.5m subscribers announced in August 

Digital platforms account for nearly 30% of all UK radio listening

"Listening to radio via a digital platform in terms of weekly reach* has increased by 12% year on year,
with 22.8 million people now tuning in to radio via a digitally enabled receiver (DAB, DTV, internet) each
week (up from 20.4 million in Q3, 2010).
Digital listening  hours for Q3, 2011  reached 304 million hours,  up 16%, from 262 million hours in Q3,
2010.   DAB radio maintains its position as the most popular device when it comes to listening to digital
radio, accounting for 63.9% of all digital hours, however listening via DTV (digital television) and internet
have both continued to rise year on year (hours up by 8% and 32%  respectively), albeit from a smaller
base.
- DAB hours are 194 million (162m in Q3, 2010 – up 20%)
- DTV hours are 50 million (47m in Q3, 2010 – up 8%)
- Internet hours are 40 million (30m in Q3, 2010 – up 32%)
The  share of radio listening via a digital platform now stands at 28.2%  of all radio listening, increasing
from 24.8% in  Q3, 2010 and up quarter on quarter by 5% (c.f. 26.9% in Q2, 2011).   DAB listening
increased its share from  15.3% in Q3, 2010 to  18% in Q3, 2011, while the share of  DTV listening
increased from 4.4% in Q3, 2010 to reach 4.7% this quarter; and internet listening, which currently stands
at 3.7% for Q3, 2011, is up from 2.8% in Q3, 2010"
Source:  Data from Rajar, reported in a press release, 27th October 2011

TV advertising in the UK delivers an average return of £1.70 per £1.00 invested

"Amid gloomy economic forecasts, a new study has revealed how advertising performed during the economic downturn in recent years. It shows that TV advertising created the most profit (an average return of £1.70 for every £1 invested), and that its return on investment (ROI) has increased by 22% in the last five years.
Payback 3, an independent study commissioned from Ebiquity by Thinkbox, is an econometric analysis of 3,000 ad campaigns across nine advertising sectors between 2006 and 2011. It compares, on a like-for-like basis, the sales and profit impact during the last five years of five forms of advertising: TV, radio, press, online static display and outdoor.
Other key findings include:
TV advertising is 2.5 times more effective at creating sales uplift per equivalent exposure than the next best performing medium (press);
TV advertising has a ‘halo effect’ across a brand’s portfolio. 38% of TV’s sales effect is felt by products not directly advertised;
TV’s ‘halo effect’ also makes other forms of advertising work harder;
TV is responsible for 71% of attributable sales in Ebiquity’s database, but only accounts for 55% of spend.
Effective profit
Ebiquity found that TV advertising’s ROI is on average 22% higher than five years ago, despite the recession. This is because TV’s effectiveness (sales uplift per exposure) has remained undiminished while the cost of advertising on TV has been falling in both absolute and relative (inflation-adjusted) terms.
TV also delivers the most extra profit, Ebiquity found: an average return of £1.70 for every £1 invested (ROI of 1:1.7). This compares to £1.48 for radio, £1.40 for press, £1.06 for online static display, and £0.45 for outdoor advertising."
Source:  Research by Ebiquity for Thinkbox, reported in a press release, 13th October 2011

Music piracy has fallen in Sweden as a result of streaming services like Spotify

"Copyright and download blog TorrentFreak says that the latest quarterly report from Media Vision (in Swedish) prepared for the industry association Musiksverige (Music Sweden) shows a 25% fall in piracy in the country since 2009.
Streaming services such as Spotify are now the most popular way to consume music. More than 40 percent of the participants in the survey now use a music streaming service, compared to less than 10 percent who say they download music legally. About 23 percent continue to pirate music, but this number is dwindling.
The report also examines why listeners say they are moving away from pirate downloads:
Looking at the motivations for people to switch to legal services, participants in the survey cited “the range of music that’s released” as the primary reason (40%). Other explanations were the absolute increase in available music (30%), and the fact that legal services have become cheaper (24%) and simpler (24%)."
Source:  Wall Street Journal blog, 30th September 2011

Spotify gained a million new users after integration with the Facebook homepage ticker

"At f8 last Thursday, music services such as Spotify, Vevo, Rdio and Mog gained the ability to publish the listening activity of their users to Facebook’s new home page Ticker. The exposure to the friends of their users through the tickers has led to big gains for some music partners.
Most significantly, Spotify has gained one million new monthly active Facebook-integrated users since f8 to reach 4.4 million MAU. It spiked from 1.12 million to 3.25 million daily active users the day after f8, and appears to be settling back to roughly a quarter million new DAU. Rdio, MOG, and Deezer have also seen significant gains in their numbers of Facebook-integrated users."
Source:  Data from Inside Facebook, collected from looking at app users, reported on 26th September 2011

Spotify has 2m paying subscribers

"Streaming music service Spotify now has more than 2 million paying subscribers in eight countries, according to a new report today.
Spotify saw a huge boost in premium subscribers after its U.S. launch in July. The company’s premium service is a paid, advertisement-free version of its streaming music service that lets people share playlists.
The startup has added about 400,000 new paying subscribers since the launch, according to comments made by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek in an interview with CNBC. Ek is presenting at Facebook’s f8 developer conference Thursday, where he is expected to share additional information about Spotify’s stateside penetration into the music streaming market."

Source:  VentureBeat, 21st September 2011

Pandora posted a loss of $1.8m in Q2 2011

"The Oakland firm reported a 117% increase in revenue from a year earlier to $67 million as advertising and subscription sales grew.
The company, however, continued to lose money, posting a $1.8-million loss, or a loss of 4 cents a share, for the quarter that ended July 31 compared with a $1.6-million profit, or 4 cents, a year earlier.
Adjusting for stock compensation costs for its executives and other special expenses, Pandora posted $3.3 million in net income, compared with $2.6 million a year earlier. Analysts had expected Pandora to break even for the quarter on $61 million in revenue."
Source:  LA Times, 25th August 2011

Years taken to achieve 50% penetration in the UK

Click to enlarge

Source:  The UK Communications Marketplace Report, Ofcom, August 2011

Spotify has 1.5m paying subscribers

"At the end of June, Spotify had more than 1.5 million paying subscribers for its streaming music service, according to a report prepared for a rightsholder and subsequently seen by Music Ally, which outlines the company’s performance between January and June this year. Spotify did not leak the report to Music Ally, and has declined to comment.
The report clearly identifies a surge in subscriptions after Spotify introduced restrictions on its free service at the start of May, including a 10-hour monthly listening limit and a five-play cap on individual tracks. The changes came at the behest of some of Spotify’s major-label shareholders, who wanted to see an uptick in the company’s conversion rate of free to paid users.
They certainly got that. Music Ally can reveal that between March and June this year, Spotify lost 1.6 million free users, but gained 644,000 520,000 paying subscribers.
Here’s how that breaks down: In March, the company had 4.73 million free users and 1.02 million paying subscribers, with a total active user base of 5.75 million, of whom 17.8% were paying. Then the restrictions were announced in mid-April and implemented on 1 May. By June, the leaked report reveals that Spotify had only 3.13 million free users, but 1.54 million paying subscribers: 32.9% of its 4.67 million active users."

Source:  MusicAlly, 18th August 2011

19% of iPhones in Sweden have Spotify installed

Click to enlarge

Source:  Blog post by Onavo, 12th August 2011

Key Ofcom stats for the UK

"Internet
Number of fixed residential broadband connections in the UK - 18.0 million (end 2010).
Proportion of adults with broadband in the UK (fixed + mobile) - 74% (Q1 2011)
Proportion of adults with mobile broadband in the UK - 17% (Q1 2011)
Proportion of adults with a social networking profile - 48% (Q1 2011)
Proportion of people who use their mobile to access the internet -  32% (Q1 2011)
Number of mobile broadband (Dongles/PC datacard) subscriptions - 4.8 million (end 2010)
Landline/mobile phones
Number of residential fixed landlines in the UK - 23.7 million (end 2010)
Number of fixed landlines in the UK, including ISDN channels - 33.4 million (end 2010)
Proportion of adults who personally own/use a mobile phone in the UK - 91% (Q1 2011)
Proportion of adults who live in a home that has a mobile phone but no landline phone in the UK - 15% (Q1 2011)
How many PAYG mobile subscriptions in the UK ? - 51% (Q1 2011)
Number of text messages sent per mobile subscription per month - 133 (in 2010)
Number of 3G mobile subscriptions in the UK - 33.1 million (end 2010)
Digital television
Proportion of UK homes with digital TV 93% (Q1 2011)
Number of TVs in the UK 60m (end 2010)
Number of HD TVs in the UK - 24m (Q1 2010)
Number of minutes of TV people aged 4+ watch each day - 242 (average in 2010)
Number of UK homes with Freeview on any set - 74% (Q1 2011)
Proportion of UK homes with Freeview on their main set - 38% (Q1 2011)
Digital radio
Proportion of households with access to a DAB Digital Radio - 37% (Q1 2011)
Proportion of listener hours through a digital platform (DAB, online, DTV) - 26.5% (Q1 2011)
Number of digital radio stations - 216 (end 2009)
Number of local radio stations (excluding community stations) - 344 (July2011)
Number of national radio stations - 21 (July 2011)"
Source:  Ofcom's latest facts and figures on the UK, retrieved 4th August 2011

Pandora has 100m registered users

"Pandora, the popular internet radio service, today announced 100 million registered users and 36 million monthly active users. More than 100 million people have registered to listen to Pandora's free personalized radio service across hundreds of consumer electronic devices including computers, smart phones, TVs, set-top boxes, alarm clocks, tablets and car dashboards. On a monthly basis, 36 million listeners access Pandora across these multiple platforms as Pandora continues to increase its share of the radio listening market.
During the Company's first Analyst Day, Pandora's CEO and President Joe Kennedy noted that Pandora is redefining radio, where 80 percent of all music listening occurs. Pandora ended 2010 with 2.3 percent market share of all radio listening in the United States. Six months later, Pandora has increased its market share to 3.6 percent of all radio listening in the United States."

Source:  Press release from Pandora, 12t July 2011

Bad Romance was the most played song on British radio in 2011

"Top 10 most played songs in 2010
1. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
2. Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind
3. Lady Gaga - Alejandro
4. Plan B - She Said
5. Kylie Minogue - All the Lovers
6. Olly Murs - Please Don't Let Me Go
7. Ke$ha - Tik Tok
8. Florence and the Machine - Rabbit Heart
9. Train - Hey, Soul Sister
10. Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire"
Source:  Data from PPL, reported by The Guardian, 6th June 2011

Spotify has 46% reach among Swedes under 35; radio has just 38% reach

"More than one in five Swedes listens to the much-hyped Swedish-Anglo music streaming service Spotify, according to a new report. Among younger listeners, that more than doubles to almost one in two.
The survey, carried out by TNS Sifo and based on interviews with 1,400 Swedes, found that Spotify has a 22% reach among the Swedish population. In comparison, accumulated radio listening, including public and commercial radio, has a 72% reach, while commercial web-radio broadcasts only reaches three out of 50 people.
However, among Swedes under 35, Spotify has a staggering 46% reach, comfortably above the 38% reach of all commercial radio put together. These figures are likely to trouble the large commercial radio providers, like Sweden’s listed media group MTG."
Source:  Data from TNS Sifo, reported by the Wall Street Journal, 16th May 2011

It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million people...

Time spent to reach 50 million users
"Radio: 38 years
TV: 13 years
Internet: 4 years
iPod: 3 years
Facebook: 2 years
In 1984 there were only one thousand devices in the world capable of accessing the Internet. Eight years later this had reached one million. Last year it reached one billion, and there will be little surprise if this figure doubles within the next few years."

Source:  Original source is unknown, this is from The Southern Cross, 9th March 2009

Update - it seems that the first stats may come from the United Nations Cyberschoolbus, published (I think) in 2000.  Thanks to Joseph Guenes (@brandingself) for the tip!

Spotify has one million paying subscribers

"It seems like only yesterday we were hatching ideas for a new music service in a tiny office-cum-apartment with a broken coffee machine, and the party we threw having reached one million users almost two years ago today was one to remember.
So it’s with a sense of real pride and excitement that we can announce a new milestone today, having welcomed our millionth paying subscriber to the service. It’s a testament to our fantastic users who continue to support us and spread the Spotify word, either by telling friends or sharing some of the 200 million playlists that you’ve put together so far."
Source:  Spotify blog, 8th March 2011
Note - "Spotify is currently only available in Sweden, Spain, Norway, Finland, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. In Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Switzerland the Premium service was offered until July 2009, but never the free version. Currently only customers with credit cards issued in one of the above-mentioned launch countries can buy a Premium account."

Source:  Wikipedia, retrieved 8th March 2011