RAIN Summit NYC, “Pureplays and Podcasts Day,” was hosted last Wednesday at The Greene Space by Jennifer Lane, CEO of RAIN Enterprises and president of RAIN Summits, and Kurt Hanson, founder of RAIN Newsletter.
KEYNOTE: Kurt Hanson
RAIN founder Kurt Hanson gave the afternoon’s keynote address: “Value Migration and the Online Audio Opportunity.” Explaining that his inspiration came from recently reading Adrian J. Slywotzky’s book, Value Migration: How to Think Several Moves Ahead of the Competition, Hanson laid out the central thesis: Enterprise value can move from one brand, or brand cluster within a category, to another brand or cluster, as changing customer priorities force changing business models.
Hanson laid out examples of migrating value in the department store and coffee categories — think Starbucks ascending as Maxwell House descended. He linked these examples of migrating value to the radio industry by comparing 1990 consumer values (before online audio) to 2014 consumer values.
As consumer expectation and demand changed, the value migrated from radio companies to satellite and online companies:
To the question, Why don’t legacy firms enter new business model trends? Hanson reduced the answer to: “We don’t want to.” It is not technology difficulties which prevent legacy powerhouses from losing value; it is intertia. “It’s not in their corporate makeup to change,” said Hanson.
Research: Larry Rosin
A research presentation from Edison Research revisited that company’s previous report commissioned by the Streaming Audio Taskforce, which revealed that over 50 percent of online Americans listen to Internet audio. Breaking apart that study, president Larry Rosin discussed listening habits of the 18-34 demographic. Eighty-nine percent of that cohort listens to AM/FM radio, Rosin said, with most of that exposure occurring in the car.
At the same time, 80% of the demographic also listens to Internet radio, supporting Rosin’s thesis that the whole audio pie is growing bigger through the addition of listening hours in the day, and new listening environments. (Edison measures “walking around” listening.) “Audio is a booming category,” said Rosin. His assessment of Internet radio’s most attractive feature? “The ability to skip songs is the killer app.”
More wrap-up tomorrow
Stay tuned for more summaries of RAIN Summit NYC, including a panel on music licensing which included the sensible audience question: “Does it have to be this complicated?” And, another panel discussion of innovative audio platforms. You can watch the entire event right here: