WaWaWa

WaWaWa

Filed under: General
Posted by: site admin @ 3:55 pm

From ICA Institute blogger, Erik Rostad:

A recent Chinese start-up called WaWaWa (www.wa3.cn) will test a subscription service that evens out to about $0.03 per song. At this point it is unknown whether or not Chinese consumers will pay even $0.03 per song. The content is mostly from independent artists, but this is pretty telling.

China just passed the USA in the number of internet users. Increasingly, China will begin having a much larger impact on the market and pricing. In this case, this is a pretty significant test, so to say, for the Chinese consumer. On the whole, China is notorious for downloading copyrighted material for free.

This is really amazing when you think about it. The music business sales model has changed so much that we are now asking ourselves the question of whether or not the country with the largest mass of internet users will put down $0.03 for a song.

The song is no longer the widget of value for an artist. This just shouts that the future of music will be more about the experience. The live music experience. Learning how to communicate effectively with your fan base who doesn’t just buy the $0.03 song, but experiences that song deep within their soul. The fan who has the experience will buy the merchandise, will attend the shows, and will pay to be a part of a fan club where advanced tickets are provided.

Companies will also tap into this experience factor for music. When a client has an experience with a brand and there is a song attached to that experience, perhaps through advertising, that client will associate the experience the music creates with the product.

By the way, at this point, you can only access the WaWaWa site by using Internet Explorer. Firefox and Opera don’t work.

Stay tuned,
Erik
Music Industry Blog: http://www.kokopellitimes.com/
erikrostad.com