Monetization Playbook #57–Eating Customer Complexity–Music
How Spotify Ate Customer Complexity
During my first spring break at University, I landed a plum role at the post-office, both sorting and, then later, delivering mail.
This job facilitated my second car purchase–a 'Boy Racer-Esque' Ford Escort Mark II. You'll note the use of Roman numerals for the two–this car was class!
Touch number two–my best mate also got a role at the same sorting office. We were in clover.
Five days a week, we sorted, chatted, and delivered mail, mostly before lunchtime, once we found our groove.
The majority of deliveries went without a hitch–except for the bulky post.
Remember, this was in the days before internet marketing had taken hold, so marketers still favoured maildrops when they wanted to machine-gun awareness.
Thank goodness for Facebook and Google–no more saturation bombing marketing campaigns!!!
With today's lens–all I can now see is friction.
Friction in carrying the bulky mail.
Friction in the delivery of bulky mail through letterboxes.
Literal friction in getting bitten by dogs while traversing the landscape.
Friction! Friction!
But you'll note that I never considered the friction experienced by the customer.
Friction, what friction?
The friction of not receiving their mail on time.
Friction in receiving junk mail.
Friction from going to collect undeliverable mail at the local–or not so local nowadays–post office.
It what all about my friction–not theirs!
Then along came Amazon.
Tracking. Next day delivery.
Known fixed costs.
Are they for real?
Yeah, Jeff and the Amazonians got high on eating customer complexity.
So how does this play out in other industries? Which behemoths have grown on the nourishment of customer complexity?
Some say music was always ripe for disruption.
But was it?
Cruising along for over a century minting vinyl for fun–it wasn't an obvious target.
Cue Napster–then the paradoxical white horse Apple.
Yet complexity still ruled.
Customers faced Apple's walled garden with high switching costs, and how many records can a person buy?
Enter Spotify. Don't buy––RENT!!
From their library–to your library–to the world's library–at your fingertips.
Customer complexity. Now that's a nourishing meal for a growing unicorn.