The Power of Personalization in Digital Music Marketing
How do you feel when you log into your preferred streaming service and see a graphic that displays the message “Made for Rock Euphoria,” “Your Top Mixes,” or “Recommended for Today?” It makes you feel great! As a user, you feel appreciated. It’s almost as if someone (a company/brand) took the time to get to know you, understands your music preferences, knows who your favorite artists are, and goes further and even suggests new songs you might enjoy.
In music marketing, the importance of continuously monitoring and adapting our strategic planning process, combined with using personalization, allows us to adapt to changing trends and preferences in real time. Together, artists are better positioned to sustain long-term success and connect with their audiences more deeply.
Spotify Discover Weekly
Rock Euphoria Spotify’s Discover Weekly
If we take the analogy I described last week, where I described strategic planning as a playlist where every track needs to combine perfectly to keep listeners hooked, personalization takes it further by ensuring that each song is perfectly hand-picked and resonates deeply with each listener, providing music that fits their music taste perfectly.
Marketers use personalization based on a user’s preferences, behaviors, and interactions. This approach enhances the user experience and makes users form more robust connections between the listener and their favorite artists.
Personalized Playlists
As a premium subscriber, I always look forward to receiving my “Discovery Weekly” playlist every Monday. Every week, there are 30 new songs from artists I have never heard of but typically fall into the type of music I listen to. The curiosity about potentially finding a new artist to love makes this personalized playlist so unique.
Spotify Daily Mix Playlist
Spotify Daily Mix Playlist for Rock Euphoria
“A recommendation system is an algorithm which tries to predict the rating or preferences a user would give to an item,” explains Valerio Velardo, AI audio engineer, and programmer. “Recommendation systems are used across many types of media.”
If Spotify finds that User A and User B have a high overlap in their listening preferences, songs that User B enjoys but User A hasn’t heard yet might be recommended to them. The result is a highly personalized playlist that introduces users to new music they will likely enjoy. It gives them a great listening experience and engages them with the platform.
Spotify allows users to create collaborative playlists. I have built and shared them with friends, making memories from songs we heard on vacation, a show we attended, or even music that reminds us of each other. This makes it more interactive, as we can not only interact with the platform users who share the same taste of music that we do but also share playlists and listening habits with friends.
I enjoy seeing what my friends are currently listening to. We can create playlists based on a vacation we took together or a concert we attended. This personalization is a collective effort that I can share with my friends.
Personalized Concert Experiences
Concerts and live events are another area where personalization plays a massive role in the user experience. Ticketmaster allows fans to personalize their “For You” tab on their website and app to see a list of upcoming events near them based on their favorite artists.
Users can now receive personalized feeds and concert notifications (via customized email) to ensure they never miss a tour announcement, pre-sale for tickets, or venue information.
Ticketmaster Favorites
Ticketmaster App Favorites Selection
In addition, based on their “Favorites” artist list, the ticketing platform can send out a list of upcoming concerts from similar artists or types of events users may not have known were coming to a venue near their town.
“We create excitement to drive people to live events through several touchpoints, including digital, social, and even experiential activations,” adds Ticketmaster CMO Kathryn Fredrick.
Personalized concert experiences build an emotional connection with fans, encouraging repeat engagement by attending more concerts - but they come at a premium. Fans are willing to pay more for unique and tailored experiences, purchasing VIP tickets or add-ons like “meet-and-greet" opportunities to get them closer to their favorite musicians.
Artists and their teams can gather valuable information on fan preferences and behaviors by offering personalized options, which can be used in strategies to help plan future shows and develop new products that align with fan interests.
Takeaways
Personalization in the industry extends far beyond music. Finding new ways to get closer to fans and tailoring experiences, especially for them, can create deeper connections between artists, fans, and industry professionals who want to ensure we build a strong relationship, bond with the music they love, and give them a unique experience by strengthening the ties across several brands in the music industry.