One third of US music subscribers share accounts according to recent research by MusicWatch, the music consumer research organisation and published in a recent blog. Streaming services have largely been credited for the reduction of music piracy by CD copying and P2P networks which were popular a decade ago. However digital service providers are not immune from account sharing.
Research by MusicWatch’s Monitor series of consumer research conducted in 2019 came up with the following key takeaways:
- Many subscribers are illicitly sharing their music subscription logins
- Stricter enforcement would probably lead to some conversion to new accounts, but most would revert to ad-supported options
- There is an opportunity to improve consumer understanding of the ground rules. Artists and other rights holders need to help with messaging to overcome a lack of consumer understanding, and perhaps a lack of empathy, around account sharing.
According to MusicWatch, in the quarter ending July 2019, 95 million people in the US had used one of the major streaming services. Of these, 68 million were self-paying, 25 million had access through a family plan, 13 million were on a free trial and 10.7 million were freeloading or sharing a login that was not from an authorized family plan. Among paid subscribers who didn’t use a family plan, 32% share their login with someone else. With millennials aged 25-44 even more likely to share a login (44%). The loss of revenue to the industry if all these users had a paid subscription is estimated at close to $1 Bn ($995m) although only 30% of those who share and don’t pay say they would pay for a subscription preferring to use a free ad supported service instead.
The research also highlighted a lack of clarity around the use of family plans with 65% of those surveyed saying they subscribed to one. From other MusicWatch research this would appear to be overstated by a factor of 3. The research also showed that those who share premium services from Apple, Pandora or Spotify, one in five believe that their service does not offer a family plan despite the fact that all three companies do offer a family plan
The blog goes on to discuss the morality of account sharing comparing it to how attitudes to P2P sharing changed over time. It also provides a discussion on how properly used family plans could contribute to an awareness that artists and other rights holders are entitled to receive fair remuneration for their creations.
