Mobile to drive explosive video, music growth

During a keynote session on Monday, Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge (pictured right) said “the role of the mobile business in streaming has been critical”, citing agreements with a number of operators to bundle music services into their tariffs.

He added: “They completely changed and defined, as has mobile, how media is consumed and enjoyed.”

Though music streaming has quickly gained traction in the US, Grainge said there’s plenty of room for growth in other established and emerging markets: “If you look at some of these markets they’re still heavily physical markets…In the UK and Germany, 65 per cent of their business is still a physical product, and the US is 90 per cent digital. So I feel very optimistic about the growth that we have in a lot of the mature markets.”

He added that mobile is driving his company to explore new music experiences, including short form video, VR and AR, gaming and social messaging.

Anjali Sud, CEO of video platform Vimeo, similarly credited mobile as a driver of growth in video.

“This year over 80 per cent of all mobile traffic itself will be video, so this really is the medium that everyone has to learn,” she said, adding the market for tools like Vimeo, which help creators produce video is a $20 billion opportunity.

Sud said analytics and AI are increasingly important tools for creators looking to maximise their impact across platforms, while noting the company is working to translate all the data it collects into actionable information.

“Those insights always are useful. But one of the hardest things for so many people is data is available, but it’s how do I actually make that data insightful and useful.”