Amazon has taken the world by storm since launching as a textbook company over 20 years ago. Amazon has continuously expanded its business by entering into new markets and/or acquiring potential competitors in emerging market areas. This business model has enabled them to become one of the largest companies in the world.
Ten years ago, the ability to stream entertainment while providing the most amount of content was enough to retain a competitive advantage amongst consumers. While Netflix remains the largest providers for streaming video content, Amazon comes in at second. This demonstrates the power of the company and its continuous evolution as the market changes.
A significant competitor for Amazon in the entertainment market is Apple. Apple may have launched iTunes, which enabled the consumer to stream music, movies, or TV Shows, before Amazon offered its streaming services, but Amazon developed original content for movies or TV Shows before Apple offered Apple TV or developed their own content. As the streaming entertainment market evolved, providing something new or different to consumers to compel them to use your product or service was imperative to longstanding success in the streaming entertainment industry.
In my opinion, it always seemed that Apple was innovative for its product production (iPad, iWatch, iPhone, etc) while Amazon was better at seizing opportunities to expand into new markets. Apple’s lack of original content for movies or TV shows would result in Apple not being able to match Amazon’s competitive advantage in movies and TV Show development and production. However, in late 2019, Apple launched its own streaming service with original content. In a short period of time, Apple has quickly become a leading contender for streaming services in an increasingly competitive field.
Not to be undone by Apple’s success in the video streaming market, Amazon is looking to expand into the music industry. Amazon has offered its music streaming services for several years and represents a significant share of the market. Amazon currently offers a variety of plans which make it appealing to the market. While Amazon has a significant portion of the music market, in part due to its variety, Amazon has been acquiring talent in emerging music genres to increase its subscribers and to develop original music content.
In an age where just offering streaming services will not ensure a competitive advantage or long-term success, original content is a way to evolve. By setting the conditions to develop original music content, Amazon is positioning itself to increase subscribers. While Spotify remains the market leader for music streaming, Amazon is gaining more subscribers to its music services and the creation of original content in emerging music genres will undoubtedly increase Amazon Music subscribers. Just providing content is no longer enough of a competitive advantage in the streaming entertainment industry; with an increase in streaming services providers, originality and content production may swing consumers towards a particular service.
Amazon continues to demonstrate its business savvy by not only recognizing an emerging market but also working to establish itself as a market leader in original music content production from a streaming service. Consumers want options and originality. Amazon already offers listening options to entice consumers and the expansion into production will most likely continue to draw more consumers to their music streaming services. While the TV and movie industry adapted with channels like HBO offering their own streaming services, it will be interesting to see how the music industry adapts to streaming services providers producing and offering original music content.
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6 Responses to Streaming Services and Original Content: The Current Frontier