Amazon Music | Viral Growth | Memo
Amazon Music offers a breadth of content that will appease music fans at affordable prices. Amazon provides three-tiered pricing (mobile + desktop supported). Starting with Amazon Music Unlimited, which starts at $7.99 for Prime account holders, consumers have access to 90MM+ songs, Live streaming, and an ad-free experience.
If you do not feel like paying $8 a month, Amazon Music Prime grants access to 2MM songs and everything above to Prime members for free (e.g., Ad-free, live shows). Then we have Amazon Music. This free version has access to a few thousand songs and is ad-sponsored. For example, I watched the Rolling Stones live on my phone via Twitch last weekend. It was nice to see the commentary from Twitch streamers flow in during the live show. If I wanted to watch the whole show while hosting friends, I could have cast it on my living room TV and have a pseudo front row seat.
Overview
Amazon’s Alexa ecosystem and properties, such as Twitch & Wondery, make it a nice replacement for users who are used to Spotify but are not fans of the rising prices. If you have room in your budget, I would highly recommend signing up for both Spotify and Amazon Unlimited.
The main switching cost is transferring your playlists to another streaming platform, but there are several third-party services that make transferring playlists easy. If you are already a Prime account holder, switching to Amazon Music is a no-brainer on paper.
The STEPPS framework from Section4’s Viral Growth discusses five factors contributing to viral growth. Viral growth can be summarized into two principles, consumer Adoption & Advocacy.
- Adoption is the process by which people become users of a product or service.
- Advocacy is another way of saying “word of mouth” — or how much people talk about your brand.
The ultimate goal for brands is to acquire customers who use your product AND advocate for it. However, preventing churn is challenging enough. Getting people to share and convert others publicly is an even greater challenge. The STEPPS framework helps brands identify areas where they are strongest and weakest to drive adoption and advocacy, leading to Viral Growth.
STEPPS Framework
*Strengths *Weaknesses
(my observations, not backed with data)
- Social Currency → If you can make others look good, they’ll be more likely to share your brand with others to signal their identity and status; this raises awareness for your brand.
- Triggers → Reminders cause people to think about your product, service, or brand, even when it’s not physically there.
- Emotion → Creating high arousal moments encourages customers to share their experiences about your brand with others.
- Public → If it’s easy to see someone doing something, it’s easy to imitate them.
- Practical Value → News you can use.
- Stories → People who share memorable experiences they’ve had, and in so doing, advocate for your brand.
Amazon excels at Triggers and being Public, given its Alexa-enabled & Fire TV products, partnerships, and recent acquisitions. Amazon’s hardware ecosystem keeps Amazon top of mind for existing users and creates a trojan horse for Amazon Music to acquire new users and increase lifetime value.
Because Amazon Music is not a cash cow (yet), Amazon Music generally falls short of connecting with people and creating organic stories to drive viral growth. The lack of social and emotional connection is not an obstacle but a growth opportunity for Amazon Music to increase engagement from existing customers and acquire new customers. Below I touch upon growth areas, focusing on Social Currency, Emotion, and Public factors.
Regardless of age, sex, beliefs, music can make people feel. It can heighten the intensity of a movie scene, make a memory last forever, or get you through a cram session up to the 11th hour before the date. Music can make people feel, and it makes sense why companies tried to associate their brands with upcoming artists, catchy jingles, and mainstream celebrities.
Amazon Music Unlimited offers Social Currency by affording access to over 90MM songs and exclusive Podcasts & Shows in partnership with Amazon Video and Twitch.
In December 2020, Amazon acquired Wondery, a four-year-old podcast startup, in a deal reportedly worth around $300 million. The content acquisition has bolstered its content library to compete with Spotify and Apple Music. Wondery allows people access to exclusive content unavailable on other streaming platforms.
More recently, Amazon launched a content creator platform called AMP, which is similar to Twitter Spaces or Clubhouse, but focused on music. AMP allows people to create live “radio shows” where they can act as a DJ by taking callers and playing tracks from its catalog of tens of millions of licensed songs, ranging from classic titles to today’s top hits.
Although not integrated with Amazon Music (yet?), this offers another way for consumers and artists to express themselves and amplify their digital image.
In April 2022, Amazon Music & Amazon Video are launching a docuseries examining country music’s evolution through the lens of a new generation of Black artists; the film will feature interviews and performances from artists such as Jimmie Allen, Breakthrough Artist for Amazon Music BRELAND, and many more. Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road is an excellent example of how to be top of mind to consumers and even inspire young artists looking to make their break into music.
With the breadth of content and additional features within the Amazon Music ecosystem, users can bring out their inner remarkability with high audio quality playlists, which are further enhanced by the seamless integration of Alexa-powered smart home devices.
That being said, Amazon Music’s strongest Social Currency is providing a seamless connected experience between smart home devices and speakers and your favorite songs at the right moment.
When I think of Spotify, I think of a music streaming company. When I think of Amazon Music, I think of a tech company that offers music streaming.
Incorporating more Social Proof coupled with Game Mechanics can help encourage engagement from existing customers, which can lead to more sharing. Sharing is caring, and the electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) is the greatest gift. Spotify has created a masterclass case study on how to be a surveillance company that makes you feel good at the end of the year.
The Spotify Wrapped report is a prime example of how to make a product culturally ubiquitous while being a music fan during the digital information age. Spotify Wrapped gets updated each December and comes with a playlist of your 100 “top songs” of the year. The feature makes it easy to share Publicly on social media platforms, making your Instagram feed a blended combination of holiday cheer and music-fan flexes.
To close the gap between Spotify and Amazon Music, Amazon Music needs to invest more in the idea of social identity and social content. To scale its growth, Amazon Music needs to be more Public (front and center) and less of an “add-on” to being a Prime member.
According to eMarkter, by 2023, Amazon will surpass Pandora based on monthly engagement. However, to be more than AI-powered playlists and DJs, Amazon Music needs to expand its support for social profiles and social connections between artists and fans.
Taking a page out of Garmin Connect and Strava, profile ranking, data points, and recommendations are valuable features to encourage adoption and advocacy because they increase the value of the service the more the user uses the product. Similar to the network effect on social media platforms, the more data I share with Garmin, the more useful the exercise and recovery recommendations become over time.
For Strava, seeing another person with a “subscription badge” can entice a fellow runner to think maybe I need to adopt and subscribe. Social proof and visibility can ease people into becoming advocates with minimal effort. Highlighting in my Amazon Music profile that I am an unlimited subscriber could be an easy way to encourage others to upgrade to a higher tier.
Amazon Music has basic sharing features, such as creating a post or story on Facebook or Instagram, but a screenshot of the song cover will not encourage adoption or advocacy.
Amazon Music supports user-profiles and stats related to whom you follow and who follows you back, but there is no incentive to care (very barebones). However, with strategic and dedicated effort, expanding Amazon Music profiles to reflect data that is already being captured into privacy-friendly and engaging features can entice streamers to become advocates of the brand and encourage non-users to become adopters. Furthermore, it could allow artists to connect with music fans in a less competitive and noisy medium, such as Instagram and TikTok.
The intersection of social and eCommerce presents an opportunity to enhance user profiles, so they offer an extension of identity. In the digital information age, people’s digital profiles are an extension of their ego, and that matters a lot more than we would like to admit.
According to a study from Scientific America, “talking about oneself activates the same areas of the brain that light up when eating good food, taking drugs, and even having sex.” Seeing an “Amazon Music Avatar” in the Desktop and Mobile App could trigger users to engage more and explore the depth of features and services within the Amazon ecosystem.
Amazon Music should incorporate more Emotion to elicit high arousal and a response from users for users without an Alexa device. A low lift way can be through storytelling and connecting with key personas.
Identity is a key consumer behavior in eCommerce. Amazon is the “everything store.” Exploring social commerce between artists and music fans presents an opportunity to drive growth and customer lifetime value. Imagine being able to not only stay in the know for your favorite artists but also in the know for exclusive drops and concerts (live or virtual). For die-hard music fans who are fully bought into the Alexa ecosystem, this could be a key differentiator for Amazon Music.
When it comes to Emotion, Amazon Music has a great deal of growth here. Its outbound marketing strategy is product and price-focused. The majority of the outbound messaging received prior to upgrading focused on the low monthly costs of $7.99-$9.99. Unless, I am in a bargain-hunting mood, which is more during Prime Day and during the holidays, price-point focused marketing can fall short, especially if I am not in-market or unaware of the product.
Although Amazon Music has been available since 2001, most people are not aware of the services and may stumble upon it by chance. This suggests that Amazon Music may have a branding problem outside existing Prime users. To increase their customer base, they will need to shift the narrative from low-price to a functional and emotional narrative that ties back to the larger Amazon ecosystem. Instead of telling about a low monthly price, perhaps telling how Alexa + Amazon Music can help me be productive during the week or wind down before bed.
Practicality is where Amazon Music excels. Amazon Music (unlimited) offers a wide range of podcasts, shows and live concert video streaming. In-app recommendations are generally spot-on.
One of my recently discovered favorites is Business Wars, a Wondery show by David Brown. The show goes deep into the stories of competitors who zig and zag to outpace their peers. Being a practical company means being an industry expert who consistently shares bit-size facts.
In addition to content recommendations, Amazon Music has the opportunity to present to users another data point of Identity: The Prime Home Owner (or something more catchy). What is unique with Amazon vs. Spotify is that Amazon develops hardware and has a robust ecosystem. Perhaps there is value in showcasing the benefits of adopting into the Alexa ecosystem from an Amazon Music perspective. Telling a story of how current power users can benefit from Amazon Music and Alexa functionally and emotionally.
With additional feature updates, Amazon Music can expand its user profile to store more personal recommendations and music consumption stats. Customers can earn varying levels for being a Prime Home Owner (or Renter), which can earn discounts for Amazon devices during Prime Day or during the holiday season.
Or, to connect music fans with artists, offer exclusive access to limited merchandise or first access to upcoming shows. These perks and exclusivity can reinforce the value of being a Prime member coupled with helping existing and prospective customers the value of Amazon Music, not just as an add-on service, but as a music platform to connect with artists and even like-minded fans.
To strive to be #1 on the music streaming charts, accelerate their customer growth, and create a larger halo effect between Amazon (retail) and Prime Video, Amazon Music should:
- Continue to invest in creating social currency that is exclusive and shareable.
- Afford more features and tools within the user profile for people to extend their Identity to Amazon Music.
- Explore social commerce as an opportunity to bring artists and music fans together via exclusive drops and first access to concerts.
Hopefully this year's Spotify Wrap-Ups aren't the only thing music fans are talking about.
