- Bingie, a free app that enables users to recommend shows and movies to friends – and to carry discussions and debates about them into one consolidated place – launches Wednesday.
- The founders are serial entrepreneurs who view the social aspect of the app as a key differentiator between their company and most streaming services' reliance on algorithmic recommendations.
Two observations give Matt Knox and Joey Lane confidence that their new app, Bingie – launching Wednesday on iOS out of L.A. – will succeed. Both revolve around the same truth: there's a lot of stuff to watch.
<p>Keeping track of it all <a href="https://dot.la/best-streaming-service-2646824325.html" target="_blank">can be exasperating</a>.<span></span></p><p>"I get five texts a day asking 'What was that show you mentioned? What platform was it on?'" said Lane, a Dallas-based serial entrepreneur. </p><p>The second observation: People love talking about the things they watch, and they like giving recommendations. "Everyone fancies themselves a tastemaker," Lane said. </p><p>Bingie (as in binge watching) is meant to take viewers' conversations about what they're watching and package them into a simple, useful app to help them find more of what they like. </p><p>"The thesis of Bingie is that your friends and family and people you work with and know you best can give you the best recommendations. It's not about an algorithm," said Knox, a partner at Wonderful Collective, an L.A.-based startup incubator.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU4MjQ4NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTcyODE1OH0.sfA8toy4nBhPbvGiWjMV30GAoQ_pKtgS4FqqixbKmf0/image.jpg?width=980" id="e253e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="41290badddf96dd5cd3af6ef738ac521" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Bingie">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Images courtesy of Bingie</small></p><p>After creating a profile, Bingie users can search for a particular show or movie, across any platform. The app provides synopses and lists where the content can be watched. Users can share their recommendations with their contacts on the app. Or, they can easily invite their friends and family to join the app and view their recommendation by text. Their conversations are collected in Bingie's chat menu, while a watchlist consolidates the recommendations they receive.<br></p><p>"Bingie doesn't need a critical mass of users to be useful," said Lane, because the recommendations come from real-life relationships and just a few of those can fuel a lot of suggestions and plenty of conversation. </p><p>In addition to making the on-boarding process fast and frictionless, Bingie also aims to attract users through savvy partnerships with related apps.</p><p>"If it's an app about ordering food," Knox said, "what goes best with that food? A great show!" </p><p>Although Bingie generally eschews the algorithmic recommendation engines that have become a touchstone of the streaming era, the app at launch will use technology to present lists of trending content among users, based on the text of their conversations.<br>
</p><p>Bingie's founders have raised a seed round but would not disclose the amount. Lane said investors seem to like how the app is socially oriented and dedicated specifically to entertainment. He points to his 14-year-old as a sign that Bingie is filling a gap. "She has four different shows she's discussing with groups of 7 to 10 people at a time."</p><p>And perhaps just as useful as relying on friends and family for suggestions on what to watch, the founders say, is that they can also tell you what to avoid. Or what to watch for a specific situation, like a road trip or a third date. </p><p>As for the business model, Bingie will incorporate advertising "at some point," Knox said, and will potentially sell data, both of the anonymized, aggregated variety and from user surveys.</p><p>"We've both been doing startups for more than a decade," said Knox. "The thing I've learned is to be nimble when you launch and don't have your feet stuck in the mud." </p><ul class="ee-ul"></ul><p>With new cross-platform recommendation apps <a href="https://dot.la/watchworthy-ranker-app-2645570752.html" target="_self">bubbling up</a> with <a href="https://www.likewise.com" target="_blank">some</a> <a href="https://www.justwatch.com" target="_blank">regularity</a> and others <a href="https://dot.la/best-streaming-service-2646824325.html" target="_self">likely to come</a> as the volume of content <a href="https://dot.la/niche-streaming-services-2646401314.html" target="_self">continues to grow</a>, there may soon be a market for apps that recommend recommendation apps. </p>
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For many musicians, the democratization of music production and distribution carried the promise of reaching multitudes of eager fans at the touch of an upload button.
Yet with over 40,000 new tracks being uploaded each day, creating a virtually infinite selection of music available on most streaming platforms, breaking through as an artist has in some ways become more difficult than ever, especially on the global stage.
<p>
It is certainly possible today for artists to create and self-distribute their music, gain a following and begin building a career. But there's a big difference between having access to the tools of music creation, distribution, and building a sustainable career and the potential to become a global superstar. And that's where modern record labels are best positioned to help.
</p>
So What Does a Music Label Do These Days?
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3MDcwOC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxOTQyMDAyN30.NXh1q7zM8Eh5HffmqBEkhdWpQMmR6_CIXsZFCN4X4hw/image.png?width=980" id="dc6c4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="505a070dd4c0dde12b26830f934533d7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Revenues from recorded music in the United States grew 13% in 2019 to $11.1 billion at estimated retail value.
Image from The Recording Industry Association of America's report on year end revenues for 2019.
<p>Fact is, what record labels do has not changed much since the industry's digital transformation. Now, as ever, labels discover and develop artists, connect them with creative collaborators to make great records, promote and position them in the media and wherever fans go to get music and reward successful outcomes. Over the last decade or so, the digital transition <a href="http://musonomics.org/modernlabelreport" target="_blank">has fundamentally changed <em>how </em>and <em>when</em></a> virtually every functional area of a record label is done.<br></p><p>One difference that touches every facet of a label's operation is the massive amounts of real-time discovery and consumption data. Label teams analyze thousands of global inputs: Facebook fans, Twitter followers, YouTube views, Instagram activity, Shazam queries and Wikipedia look-ups. That's on top of analyzing the daily tsunami of music service plays around the world. The end goal: to develop an agile, highly customized response plan for every track of an artist's release.<br></p><p>Corollary to all this data is how today's music fans discover and consume music. Many fans now listen to music via premium subscription services that give them access to tens of millions of tracks for less than the price of one CD per month, or in a "feels free" option of ad-supported delivery. Fans also access music by watching label-created visual content on a myriad of screens, large and small, over video channels and via social media. At the same time they may still buy CDs or vinyl records and listen to the radio. To properly synthesize and optimize all these inputs and extract actionable insights requires hands-on experience that is both broad and deep, relationships, investment and instant access to a global marketing and distribution network; that is, it requires boots on the ground. Lots of them.</p><p>Revenues from recorded music in the United States grew 13% in 2019 to $11.1 billion at estimated retail value, the fourth year in a row of double digit growth reflecting continued increases — primarily from paid subscription streaming services, which reached more than 60 million subscriptions in the United States and <a href="https://www.riaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/RIAA-2019-Year-End-Music-Industry-Revenue-Report.pdf" target="_blank">accounted for 80% of recorded music revenue</a>.</p><p>To put these numbers in a global perspective, as recently as 2018 and with streaming growth surging in developed markets, the worldwide recorded music business generated <a href="https://qz.com/1585798/streaming-has-helped-the-music-industry-recover-to-half-of-its-peak-size/" target="_blank">not quite half</a> the peak revenues achieved in 1999 on an inflation-adjusted basis. CD sales crashed after 1999 with the launch of Napster and other illegal peer-to-peer file trading services, all of which were eventually litigated out of existence. The growth of iTunes downloads beginning in 2003 mitigated the decline of CD sales; Spotify didn't enter the U.S. market until 2011, the same year global revenues returned to growth after over a decade of painful decline. <a href="https://www.midiaresearch.com/reports/recession-impact-music-industry-2020" target="_blank">Midia Research pegged</a> the 2019 global music industry at $76.2 billion including recorded music, publishing, live music, merchandising and sponsorships.</p><p>And just as the mode of consumer listening has shifted from mostly physical products and permanent downloads to on-demand streams, every aspect of label operations has reoriented toward a streaming-first consumption model and an always-on consumer mindset. The business of minting hits is no longer narrowly based on the 20th century model of maximizing short-term campaign outcomes for scarce broadcast radio slots or displays in retail stores. Every label function is now organized around fighting for a share of the attention economy, where consumers have unlimited access and choice, but not unlimited time.</p>Welcome to the Age of the Artist
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3MDY3MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MzM4NDYzN30.-8GOmDZ_edaWrOrVxXQmYYnB0apytl9t2xgA0KyAobU/image.jpg?width=1245&coordinates=0%2C269%2C0%2C270&height=700" id="69482" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="89dead22fbdeac9d16069307575e171a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />The Age of the Artist
Photo by @plqml // felipe pelaquim on Unsplash<p>Today, an artist's decision to partner with a label is a choice, not a requirement. The expanding galaxy of startups designed to help the DIY artist record, distribute, and market digital music has given artists more options to stay independent longer, and enables some artists to make a sustainable living while building a fan base. Every musician starts out as an independent, DIY project. When they attract the attention of a record label, whether indie or major, they may be in a very different negotiating position than a decade or so ago. In this way, the point at which labels interact with artists has largely shifted to a point that's further along an artist's development.<br></p><p>Although labels continued to invest in developing and breaking new artists during the industry's downturn following an explosion of file sharing led to the collapse of the CD earlier this century, the improvement in industry revenue, driven by the growth of subscriptions to streaming services, is being re-invested in A&R.</p><p>Two years ago, 12% more artists signed to major label rosters for the first time as compared with the end of 2014. I'll be doing research to update this data later this year, but all signs point to further growth in artist signings. At the same time, independent artists are the fastest-growing segment in the music economy, so much so that industry analyst Mark Mulligan has dubbed the 2020s<a href="https://www.midiaresearch.com/blog/welcome-to-the-age-of-the-artist" target="_blank"> The Age of the Artist</a>, a fundamental departure from previous decades/eras defined by a mode of distribution or packaged media format.</p><p>Major labels understand it is in their interest to maintain a front-row seat to the edge of innovation through various approaches. For example, Warner Music's<a href="https://www.wmgboost.com/" target="_blank"> WMG Boost</a> invests directly in early stage companies; Universal's<a href="https://www.universalmusic.com/digital-innovation/" target="_blank"> Accelerator Engagement Network</a> invests through top accelerators located in innovation hubs around the world. But as the world's largest music-based entertainment companies and guardians of a century of the world's most popular music, their attention is focused elsewhere.</p>Where Is the Investment in New Music Technology Going?
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3MDY5NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTY3MjIyMX0.n2aN-F1AeVsqT_TQxPfh0bAiCk-9coGesQj5brVM2uE/image.jpg?width=1245&coordinates=0%2C76%2C0%2C513&height=700" id="fa16c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="78ae9303c2bb6b8089af2f45fb6165a9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Where Is the Investment in New Music Technology Going?
Photo by James Owen on Unsplash<p>So where exactly is the innovation occurring? The current cohort of international startup competitions like<a href="https://www.midem.com/en-gb/innovation/midemlab.html" target="_blank"> MidemLab</a> and those receiving support from top accelerators like L.A.'s<a href="https://www.techstars.com/accelerators/music" target="_blank"> Techstars Music</a> or<a href="https://www.abbeyroad.com/abbeyroadred" target="_blank"> Abbey Road Red</a> fit into an emerging post-pandemic investment pattern.<br></p><ol><li>Creator tools. There is a mind-numbing array of unbundled offerings for artists to support collaboration, production and mastering, funding and financial management, distribution, marketing and promotion. A generation of data insight and analytics startups were acquired by the majors along with Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora. HiFi, a new entrant in financial management and transparency, was launched with $53 million in backing 'to financially empower the creative class.'</li><li>Live streaming and virtual events. The live concert business came to a screeching halt to mid-March. Touring represents 70 – 80% of revenue for many artists. Virtually no one expects a meaningful restart of this segment until 2021. And although live streaming and virtual events are not a substitute for the live concert experience, this trend is likely to stay with us even after the pandemic recedes.</li><li>The New Merch – In China, Tencent Music has done a spectacular job proving music fans will pay for<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-hasnt-thrown-tencent-music-off-its-groove-11584441605" target="_blank"> virtual goods</a>, gifts and currencies – at scale. This is especially noteworthy in a market not known for generating revenue directly from the sale of recorded music. Now, the West is paying attention. Opportunities abound in limited edition merchandise, premium chat services, virtual merchandise and much more.</li></ol><p>Over the last two decades, the music industry has faced extreme disruption as digital services were born and entered the mainstream. Independent and unsigned artists have a myriad of options to self-release their music. While some musicians have found sustainable success without a label's backing, there are certain things that only a label can do, particularly for artists with global ambition. Opportunities for innovation and value creation are distributed across the music industry value chain, especially in the areas of creator tools, live streaming and monetizing fandom. It's no secret that many of the most exciting startups envisioning the way music will be created and experienced are in L.A. today.</p><p><a href="https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/people/larry-miller" target="_blank"><em>Larry Miller</em></a><em> is a professor at NYU where he directs the undergraduate and graduate Music Business programs. He produces and hosts the </em><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/65211uBWHg2h5hRkQKFNqM?si=aCsayA2-Qratz0G0C_FqYw" target="_blank"><em>Musonomics</em></a><em> podcast.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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- Pirated streaming subscription services, a billion-dollar industry with large profit margins, have been on the rise for the last two years.
- They give users access to premium cable and sports content, still-in-theater films, DVD content, Amazon, Netflix and more, for $10 to $15 a month.
- Why it matters: The convenience comes at a steep cost to the U.S. economy, roughly $29B, including an impact to jobs. The Motion Pictures Association says combating such illicit streaming is their "highest priority."
<p>So long, Napster and Limewire. The next generation of illegal streaming is a growing, billion-dollar industry with big profit margins and its own pirate ecosystem, according to a new report.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.digitalcitizensalliance.org/clientuploads/directory/Reports/DCA-Money-for-Nothing-Report.pdf" target="_blank">report jointly released this month by the nonprofit Digital Citizens Alliance and NAGRA</a>, a digital TV technology provider, found that such pirated streaming subscription services often mimic the look of legal content providers and are being used by an estimated nine million subscribers in the U.S.</p><p>It works like this: Users download an app, click on a link to a media player, or access an already bundled device, for a monthly fee of $10 to $15, gaining access to thousands of channels on-demand videos. They include many movies still showing in theaters, full seasons of TV series and a cornucopia of content from the big streamers.</p><p>Customers may not even be aware that their subscription service is fueled by pirated content — though that's debatable. The convenience comes at a hefty cost for those whose jobs depend on the creative industry. A <a href="https://www.theglobalipcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Digital-Video-Piracy.pdf" target="_blank">2019 study</a> estimated that global online piracy has cost the U.S. economy $29.2 billion in lost revenue annually.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU2ODI1Ni9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1ODM5NTE0OX0.QYJNIPB5SwJ7ufUa69f9poZ9eRbpZ_NUbJvPCZAsvsI/image.png?width=980" id="fa114" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c43498e75ad1d5330320d4dbe1a130a9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">An illustration from the report released this month by the nonprofit Digital Citizens Alliance and NAGRA shows a typical pirate streaming service.</small></p><p>"If it's too good to be true, it's too good to be true," said Jan van Voorn, the executive vice president and chief of global content protection for the Motion Picture Assn. "How would it be possible to get all the sports channels, all the cable channels, all the DVD content, Amazon, Netflix, plus what's in theaters? It's something fishy that can't be correct and would never be correct."<br></p><p>Van Voorn said the Motion Pictures Assn. has seen a rise in these new types of pirated subscription services in the last two years. The association has helped create the <a href="https://www.alliance4creativity.com/#Board-Member" target="_blank">Alliance for Creativity and Entertaining (ACE) with major creative content companies</a> to combat the challenge of online priracy. ACE has pushed forward with civil and criminal actions, visits to storefronts and takedown actions around the world.</p><p>"We have all these services on the radar," van Voorn said. "This is ACE's highest priority and we're addressing it with all the resources we have."</p><p>Pirated subscriptions can be purchased through 3,500 storefront websites, on social media pages or online marketplaces like eBay. For the pirates targeting the U.S. market, it's a lucrative business, generating $1 billion in annual revenues in the U.S. with profit margins ranging between 56% to 85%.</p><p>The marketplace demand has also led to an ecosystem that includes wholesalers and retailers, who rely on legitimate players like hosting services, payment processors and social media to operate.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU2ODI1Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1Mzg2MTk4Nn0.pYh0iiGo5D2Igk1aeOd4j1RKBNSpCUFVPZEizLlVWiY/image.png?width=980" id="8465e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5da0e282e0fe1a09ce49581043964cf0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">The Digital Citizens Alliance/ NAGRA report illustrates the ecosystem pirate services leverage to get their content to (sometimes unsuspecting) subscribers.</small></p><p>These "pirates" also make money by teaming up with hackers who install malware within their free apps. That enables the hackers to steal subscribers' personal and financial data, use their computers to mine cryptocurrency or possibly also harness their systems to create a botnet for cyberattacks, the report found.<br></p><p>NAGRA also discovered that subscribers' internet connections can be turned over to others for illegal activities like accessing child pornography. The illegal streaming subscriptions can also let customers skirt a U.S. ban to watch the channel Al-Manar, a "specially designated global terrorist entity."</p><p>"When it comes to piracy, the scope of the risk to consumers, small businesses and others is in direct proportion to the size of the industry, which is why we need to stop the reach and depth of this ecosystem before it grows even bigger," said Digital Citizens Alliance Executive Director Tom Galvin. "It's time to take this billion-dollar black market seriously."</p><p>___</p><em>Do you have a story that needs to be told? My DMs are open on Twitter </em><a href="https://twitter.com/latams" target="_blank"><em>@latams</em></a><em>. You can also email me at tami(at)dot.la, or ask for my contact on Signal, for more secure and private communications.</em>
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