Electronic music specialist Digitally Imported has released a status announcement of its audience growth. Increases in paid subscriptions to the listening platform have been accomplished, and in today’s report are broken out by monthly and annual plans.
First-time monthly subscribers grew 95% and first-time annual subscribers grew 60% in January 2016 compared to a year earlier. During all of 2015, the average revenue per paid subscriber was up 10%. The platform offers free listening as well, and the number of registered free users grew by 30% during 2015. These growth metrics are a result of initiatives designed to convert free listeners to the non-interactive portion of DI.fm to paid users of the entire produce offering, which includes on-demand listening.
“At Digitally Imported, our underlying mission has always been to provide superior listening experiences for electronic music fans worldwide,” said Ari Shohat, CEO of Digitally Imported. “By addressing and exceeding our listeners’ expectations around user experience, we are being rewarded with stronger user engagement, which is the linchpin in the long-term viability of our business.”
2015 was an eventful year for Digitally Imported in its business model, product, and content partnerships. A site redesign in January (2015) was followed by the introduction of on-demand listening in a service which previously was radio-style listening only. Late in the year (December), the business environment changed when the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) announced new,higher webcast royalty rates for 2016, bringing additional cost to DI’s balance sheet.
Digitally Imported has deployed an intentional strategy to drive loyalty and subscription, including cutting back on third-party streaming of its content — that encourages users to find Digitally Imported programming directly on the native platform and be exposed to subscription opportunities. Furthermore, registration is required to continue free listening past a trial period. Once listeners are registered, the company can use direct mail and other outreach to market the paid plans.
DI now encompasses 91 channels of human-programmed music channels, and on-demand access to thousands of electronica DJ mixes. The company reports that 95% of subscribers listen weekly or more frequently, and is pleased with a low churn rate: 75% of annual subscribers re-up at renewal time, and 85% of monthly subscribers renew.