Amazon Music: Making a Comeback
Amazon Music is a music streaming platform and online music store operated by Amazon. It first launched to the public on September 25, 2007. Shortly after, in January 2008 it became the first music store to sell music without digital rights from the four major labels — EMI, Universal, Warner, and Sony BMG (Wikipedia, 2021). The music streaming app took the industry by storm as it quickly captured the majority of the market for audio streaming. However, their significant market share quickly diminished as major competitors joined the market. Major competitors such as Spotify, Apple Music and Soundcloud were providing creativity and new innovations to the industry that Amazon Music couldn’t. Now an afterthought, Amazon Music only retains 14% of the market share as of Q1 2020 (Mulligan, 2020).
Objectives
Fast forwarding to this year, Amazon is hard at work to change the narrative and become a major player that they once were. That being said, they have laid out two main objectives that they would like to achieve. The first company objective for Amazon Music is focused on establishing new subscribers for their platform subscription. Additionally, the second company objective is to grow their social following and audience on Instagram.
SMART Goals
To help guide through the company objectives, Amazon Music has established company SMART goals.
First objective: To receive 19 million new subscribers by January 2022.
Specific: The goal of receiving new subscribers is specific and well-defined.
Measurable: New subscribers can be measured by tracking and recording new subscribers during the duration of the objective.
Attainable: The goal is attainable as Amazon Music saw an increase of total subscribers from 32 million to 55 million in the years 2019 and 2020 respectively (Statista Research Department, 2021).
Realistic and Relevant: In recent years, subscriber growth has accelerated and there is no signs of it slowing down. Amazon Music saw an 18 million increase in subscribers from 2019 to 2020 (Statista Research Department, 2021). A goal of receiving 19 million new subscribers is not only a safe number but also a realistic one.
Timely: Amazon Music has set a deadline to achieve their objective by January 2022.
Second objective: To increase their following on Instagram from 613 thousand to 750 thousand.
Specific: The goal specifies the follower count and platform to track.
Measurable: New followers can be measured by tracking and recording them on Instagram Insights during the duration of the objective.
Attainable: A social media strategy that includes world-class musicians and celebrities promoting the brand can help Amazon Music reaching 750 thousand followers be attainable.
Realistic and Relevant: Amazon Music being more active and involving famous musicians and celebrities to promote their brand on a popular platform such as Instagram will help their goal be realistic and relevant to meet.
Timely: Amazon Music has set a deadline to achieve their objective by January 2022.
Key Performance Indicators and Efforts on Social Media
As it relates to Amazon Music objective of receiving 19 million new subscribers, we can adjust it so that it can be tailored to social media: Receive 19 million new subscriptions through Instagram by January 2022. By doing this it will help determine key performance indicators to track during the duration of the objective. To help achieve their objective, Amazon Music will become more active on their Instagram as they produce new and creative content that will have users and followers moved and engaged. Amazon Music will also make a big push in promoting their streaming services and deals on Instagram through social links and swipe up features to make it more assessable and easier for users to subscribe to the streaming subscription service.
There are a few key performance indicators or KPIs that can be tracked to meet this objective. First, Amazon Music will track cost-per-click to measure the actual pay-per-click on Instagram. They will do so to track whether their campaign is achieving a return on investment. Second, social media conversion rate will also be tracked by Amazon Music as it will allow them to measure the percentage of visitors to their Instagram that convert to subscribers. It will also allow them to track sign-ups through various links such as social links like the swipe up feature and links attached to postings. Through being more active on their Instagram and tracking key performance indicators, Amazon Music has hopes in receiving 19 million new subscribers through Instagram by January 2022.
Amazon Music is also focused on growing their following on Instagram from 613 thousand to 750 thousand. To achieve their goal, Amazon Music will collaborate with global icons on Instagram to promote their brand on a global level. Global figures, including Shakira, Jason Derulo, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Rihanna, will dedicate a day where they will perform a story takeover for Amazon Music to showcase a day in their lives. Global figures will also once a month for the duration of the goal share a post informing their followers how they use Amazon Music, what is on their playlist and what they like most about the music streaming service.
Amazon Music will measure their objective through Instagram Insights. They will look into different social KPIs such as Reach, Follower Growth Rate, Bounce Rate and Impressions. Reach will provide Amazon Music an accurate idea of how many people are being exposed to their Instagram campaign. Amazon Music will also make use of follower growth rate to track growth in their social audience. To calculate follower growth rate, Amazon Music will check the number of followers they have gained over the course of a month and divide it by the number of followers they had at the start of that month. Amazon Music will do this every month for the duration of the objective. Amazon Music will look into the bounce rate on their Instagram page to measure the quality of traffic coming in and out. Lastly, impressions will also be taken into consideration as it is a metric that analyzes the number of times campaign content was displayed and seen by a user. By the end of the campaign, Amazon Music will have the ending outcome they wanted — grow their following on Instagram from 613 thousand to 750 thousand.
