Music

Two hundred and twenty seven Music organisations participated in the Digital Culture Survey 2017, as a part of a longitudinal study of how arts and cultural organisations in England use digital technology. They include organisations of different sizes from across England, giving us a detailed picture of how the music sector is using technology to support its work.

Importance of digital technology

In line with the wider arts and cultural sector, marketing is the area of activity where the highest proportion of Music organisations say that digital technology is important (see Figure 1). A large number of Music organisations also attribute importance to operations, although this has significantly declined since 2013. Music organisations are significantly more likely than the wider sector to see digital as important for their business models. They are significantly less likely, though, to see it as important for preserving and archiving, creation, and distribution and exhibition.

Since 2013, significantly more Music organisations are attributing importance to business models, up by 29 per cent.[^1] This positive trend is consistent across the arts sector as a whole.

Medium-sized Music organisations (defined by turnover)[^2] attribute more importance to all activity areas compared to small Music organisations. For example, 100 per cent of medium-sized Music organisations attribute importance to marketing, compared to 87 per cent of small organisations. In most areas, medium-sized Music organisations also attribute slightly more importance than large organisations. For example, 90 per cent of large organisations attribute importance to marketing vs 100 per cent of respondents from medium-sized music organisations. The two areas, of six, that more large Music organisations than medium-sized Music organisations say are important are operations (91 per cent among large Music organisations, 87 per cent of medium-sized Music organisations and 69 per cent of small Music organisations) and business models (76 per cent among large Music organisations, 68 per cent of medium-sized Music organisations and 50 per cent of small Music organisations).

In comparison to 2013, slightly fewer Large Music organisations say digital is important across all organisational functions, except creation and business models, with the only significant decline experienced in marketing (90 per cent vs. 99 per cent in 2013). Both small and medium-sized Music organisations report digital technology to be less important to operations (81 per cent vs. 96 per cent in 2013 for medium-sized organisations, and 69 per cent vs. 83 per cent for small organisations).

Digital activities

Music organisations do an average of 7.6 different types of digital activity, compared to 7.8 across the sector as a whole.[^3] This varies significantly by size of organisation. Large Music organisations are most digitally diverse, doing 9.7 different types of activities on average, whereas medium-sized Music organisations[^4] average 8.8, and this drops to 6.2 for small Music organisations. Whilst small and medium-sized organisations are in line with similarly sized organisations in the wider sector, large Music organisations are behind (9.7 types of activity vs. 10.8 among large organisations in the rest of the sector).

Overall, Music organisations are significantly more likely than the whole sector to do four types of activity and less likely to do six (see Figure 2). They are more likely to sell event tickets online, publish content onto their own websites, post video/audio content for download or streaming, and engage in simulcasting and livestreaming. They are less likely to do some 'born digital' activities, such as create digital experiences to be used at the same time as the artwork and provide virtual reality or augmented reality experience.

Since 2013, significantly more Music organisations do paid search or online display advertising, use third party platforms to generate revenue, and offer exclusive online content. However, activities such as selling products online and email marketing have seen significant decreases.

Now thinking about your organisation's digital activities, please indicate which of the following your organisation currently does. Statistically significant changes 2013-2017 (at a 95 per cent confidence level) highlighted in bold. Arrows show statistically significant differences vs whole sector. 2017: Music n=233, Whole sector n = 1,424; 2013: Music n=121.

Seventy per cent of Music organisations have a mobile-optimised web presence, close to the whole sector average of 69 per cent.[^5] The number of Music organisations optimising for mobile has increased consistently since 2013 (70 per cent vs. 27 per cent in 2013).[^6] As over 60 per cent of UK online time (for consumers generally) is now spent on mobile, Music organisations that are not yet optimised for mobile should recognise this as a priority.

In line with the whole sector, the most popular social media platforms used by Music organisations are Facebook (95 per cent), Twitter (83 per cent), and YouTube (63 per cent). Facebook and Twitter have significantly gained in popularity since 2013, when 87 per cent used Facebook and 70 per cent used Twitter.[^7] The only other social media platform to become more popular over time is Instagram (42 per cent vs. 13 per cent in 2013).

Music organisations are significantly more likely than the rest of the sector to use Soundcloud (34 per cent vs. 14 per cent sector average) and YouTube (63 per cent vs. 50 per cent). However, they are less likely to use platforms such as Vimeo (17 per cent vs. 27 per cent) and Pinterest (6 per cent vs. 12 per cent).[^8]

A similar number of Music organisations as the whole sector are undertaking data-driven activities. For example, 78 per cent of Music organisations use audience/visitor contact details to send out newsletters, (e.g. by email), compared to 76 per cent of organisations in the sector overall. More Music organisations do this data-driven activity than any of the other activities asked about. The prevalence of this activity is followed by using data to understand our audience better through data analysis, segmentation and/or profiling (48 per cent vs 46 per cent of whole sector). There has been no significant change in the number of Music organisations reporting doing the different data-driven activities compared to 2013.[^9]

The impact of digital

Overall, 69 per cent of Music organisations report a positive impact from digital on their ability to carry out their mission, which is close to the sector average of 70 per cent.[^10] Consistent with the wider range of activities they undertake, medium-sized organisations also report the highest overall impact (80 per cent), significantly above impact levels reported by small Music organisations (62 per cent), whilst large Music organisations average 69 per cent.[^11]

Compared to the arts and culture sector as a whole, a higher proportion of Music organisations report impact across four areas: selling tickets online (50 per cent vs 39 per cent); how they distribute their work and related products (34 per cent vs 24 per cent); overall revenue (28 per cent vs 21 per cent); and product sales (21 per cent vs 13 per cent) - (see Figure 3). However, they are less likely than the sector as a whole to say that digital technology has had an impact on improving access or on collaborating with other organisations.

Since 2013, there has been a significant increase in the numbers reporting impact in four areas, three of which are related to business models: selling tickets online; donations and fundraising; their organisation's overall revenue; and boosting their public profile. There have been two significant declines, with fewer organisations reporting an impact on collaborating with other organisations and on archiving.

Thinking back over the past 12 months, would you say your organisation's use of the internet and digital technology has had a major positive impact, a minor positive impact, or no positive impact at all on each of the following? Statistically significant changes 2013-2017 (at a 95 per cent confidence level) highlighted in bold. Arrows show statistically significant differences vs whole sector. 2017: Music n=204, Whole sector n=1,239; 2013: Music n=121.

Management factors

Music organisations are in line with the wider sector in citing lack of time and funding as the main barriers impeding their digital ambitions (see Figure 4). There have been no significant increases or decreases across the number of Music organisations that report experiencing individual barriers, compared to 2013, although lack of in-house staff time has increased 9 per cent.

To what extent do you see each of the following as barriers to achieving your organisation's aspirations for digital technology? 2017: Music n=198, Whole sector n=1,200; 2013: Music n=121.

Overall, Music organisations perceive the skills they self-report as being above average at, across different organisational functions, to be on approximately the same level as those of their peers (see Figure 5). There are no significant differences between Music organisations and the sector as a whole apparent here, although Music organisations are less likely to feel they have above average skills in creation, distribution and exhibition and preserving and archiving.

For each of the following areas, how advanced do you feel your organisation's digital skill levels are compared to your peers? Arrows show statistically significant differences vs whole sector. 2017: Music n=196, Whole sector n=1,187.

However, in terms of specific skill areas, significantly more Music organisations report being well-served across database management/customer relationship management (CRM) (38 per cent vs 30 per cent in the whole sector) and significantly fewer Music organisations report being well-served across research and evaluation compared to the whole sector (30 per cent vs 39 per cent).

Since 2013, there has been a decline in the number of Music organisations reporting that they are well-served for multimedia/website design (including audio, graphics, text, animation, video) from 72 per cent in 2013 to 54 per cent in 2017. This mirrors a significant decline in the wider sector, but is more extreme, with 56 per cent of organisations in the whole sector reporting being well-served in 2013 compared to 50 per cent in 2017.

Endnotes

1. Between 2013 and 2014 we changed the description of business models; specifically, one of the examples we gave changed from 'syndicating digital content to a third-party ad-funded site' to 'allowing online donations through your organisation's website'.
2. In this report 'small' is having an annual turnover of less than £100,000, 'medium' is from £100,000-500,000 and 'large' is greater than £500,000.
3. 2017: Music n = 227, Whole sector n = 1,424.
4. 2017: Music under £100,000 n = 116, Music £100k – £499,999 n = 53, Music £500k+ n = 56.
5. 2017: Music n=204, Whole sector n=1,245; 2013: Music n=121.
6. ComScore MMX Multi-Platform, January 2017.
7. 2017: Music n = 211, 2013: Music n=121.
8. 2017: Music n = 211, Whole sector n = 1,291.
9. 2017: Music n = 214, Whole sector n = 1,298, 2013: Music n = 120.
10. 2017: Music n = 203, Whole sector n = 1,234.
11. 2017: Music under £100,000 n = 95, Music £100k – £499,999 n = 48, Music £500k + n=53.

Learn more about the 2017 Digital Culture survey findings

For a better understanding of how Music and other organisations are using digital, you can access the Digital Culture data portal and explore the full set of data yourself.

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