YouTube buys BandPage for $8 million
YouTube has acquired BandPage for $8 million. The video streaming platform has been trying to win over the love of musicians, who are not too happy with the streaming world right now, due to lack of streaming royalties. With this new relationship, the service will attempt to solve the sole problem at the forefront of the streaming world: overwhelming popularity yielding no revenue.
BandPage is a startup that helps artists showcase their music and sell tickets to shows, merchandise, and exclusive fan experiences. The service integrates with nearly every major digital platform, including heavyweights in the streaming world: Spotify, SoundCloud, Facebook, Twitter, Shazam, Stubhub, and now Google and YouTube.
Streaming services like Apple Music lean on promotional opportunities for artists as a way to attract them to their platforms, as subscription revenue is low and thus leads to lower royalty payments to the artists. If a streaming service can prove it has a way to help the artist make money, in addition to promoting his popularity, it is more likely to retain subscribers. Further, a service has a higher chance of recruiting artists that do not allow their music to be available on other streaming platforms due to low royalty payouts.
Currently, YouTube’s streaming services lacks a way for artists to capitalize on their popularity with revenue, but with the integration of BandPage into their services – including the recently launched subscription service, YouTube Red – this could push artists to give the video platform early or exclusive content. Via BandPage, an artist can curate what they make available for purchase to fans, like signed memorabilia, or meet and greets, in addition to merchandise like posters, clothing, box sets and concert tickets.
The marriage of BandPage and YouTube could signal a new chapter in the developing story of streaming services and musicians – one where everyone gets their happily ever after – but only time will tell.
Via: TechCrunch
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