Music Ally

Acording to recent figures from IFPI, with digital sales worth USD $ 30 million, Brazil is now the tenth largest digital music market in the world. Historically and following the regional trend, it’s a market dominated by mobile, which contributes to 80% of the record companies’ income. It is not difficult to understand why Nokia chose this market to launch its CWM service. Have they learned the lessons of their lacklustre launch in the UK; and could Brazil become the first big success for CWM? We spoke with Andy Harley, the music manager of Nokia Brasil and this is what he told us.

What were the lessons learned from the CWM launch in the UK?

We learnt many things from the UK launch, as well as all the other launches so far (Singapore, Australia, Italy, Sweden). This knowledge continues to aggregate as we roll out in different territories. The principle lesson we learnt is the importance of the device combo. You need a fantastic device with a fantastic service – that’s the complete solution the consumer demands. And that’s what we have achieved in Brazil with the 5800 Comes With Music offer.
 
In the UK the service was promoted as a sideloading one, instead of an OTA download service as no operators where involved. How is it going to be promoted in Brazil?

One of the most attractive elements of the CWM service is that the user can choose to download either via the mobile device or via PC. It’s great to be able to have a choice of delivery, since different users have different needs. Certainly the fact we launched in Brazil with a strong operator partner, with an unlimited data package, means that the user here will have even more incentive to download OTA.
 
From the press release I assume CWM Brazil was launched with TIM´s support. Any plans to work with other operators or that is an exclusive deal?

TIM was offered a 30 day window of exclusivity to be the launch partner. Comes With Music will be launched with all of Brazil’s main operatoers. Further details will be announced very soon.

What is the plan regarding new handsets?

We are looking at the forthcoming handset portfolio and researching what will be the best product/service solution for the local market. We are also very attentive to what the consumer wants.
 
Are you considering any sort of artist endorsement to promote the service?

We have a fantastic relationship with the labels and artists and there is a will from both sides to maximise the impact of the service launch. One of the best ways of achieving this is involving the artists in the promotions, content exclusives and the marketing campaign. We are currently finalising the details of the artist involvement in Brazil but I can confirm that we will have an interesting mix of local and international, major and indie, across a range of different music genres.
 
Why CWM might be succesfull in Brazil?

The Brazilian market has a great tradition of music. Ten years ago, Brazil was the 6th largest music market in the world – now it lies in 18th place. The traditional music industry here has simply imploded over the last years. It’s tragic to see this, in a country with such a rich and diverse musical heritage, with so many talented songwriters and artists.
 
The entire market in Brazil (CD, DVD, digital) turned over USD $171M in 2008 (less than the receipts for Madonna’s last tour). Meanwhile, the digital market clocked approximately USD $21M in the same year.  Furthermore, the piracy rates in Brazil are very high, both for physical as digital formats. These numbers are an indication of the challenge the market faces as a whole.
 
On the positive side however, digital music sales are increasing at an accelerated rate of 80% a year. So while the overall value is quite low, the growth is significant. What we are seeing, is a huge demand from the Brazilian consumer for localised and socialised mobile and internet entertainment services. The average Brazilian user spends more time on social networking sites than most countries in Europe and at the same time is fully engaged by music, both online and offline. There is a whole generation in Brazil that has not had the opportunity to own a home PC but has now been empowered by having an internet-enabled mobile device in their hand or pocket anytime of the day or night.
 
Nokia has decided to launch Brazil as the 6th country in the Comes With Music global roll-out – this is an opportunity to put Brazil back in its rightful place as the 6th largest music market in the world.
 
So a combination of the rich musical heritage, the aggressive increase in digital sales, the country’s thirst for socialised internet services, the strong operator support, Nokia’s commitment in Brazil both in marketing and device solutions – that is what is going to make Comes With Music in Brazil a success.
 
How many songs are available on CWM-Nokia Music store in Brazil?

We launched with 3.6 million tracks, and that number is going up by approximately 50,000 tracks per month. This is almost twice as much as other local online music services. In Brazil we have launched with Universal, Sony, Warner, EMI as well as over 2,000 independent labels. 200 of those are Brazilian indies.
 
What is the proportion of local (Brazilian) content?

With over 200 Brazilian labels onboard plus the majors local catalogue releases, I think it’s safe to say that most Brazilian content is available.
 
Main issues and challenges faced by CWM in Brazil?

Since there is no collection society in Brazil, it makes the publishing landscape quite fragmented. However, we worked very hard together with the local publishers to find innovative solutions which were satisfactory for all concerned. We have established new benchmarks in terms of digital licensing in the territory, which will ultimately benefit the music consumer as well as the composers.
 
Is it possible to reveal some figures in terms of CWM handset sales during the first week in Brazil and number of songs downloaded?

For strategic reasons, Nokia does not reveal local sales figures. So we don’t have specific numbers to share but we can confirm that we are very satisfied with the initial results of Comes With Music. We are confident of the role that Comes With Music will play in the development of the digital music market in Brazil.

Tags: Brazil, Comes With Music, nokia

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 5:11 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.