Music Streaming Industry Analysis Assignment Sample

The threat of substitute products and services

Etemad, et al. (2016) have pointed out that substitute products can influence the entire music industry and the competition therein. Companies like Jawbone, TDK, Beats Studio by Dr Dre, Apple with its iPad and iPod, Shure, Logitech and Bose are heavily innovating with their music gadgets. The sound quality and clarity of Beats headphones are especially remarkable. iPad and iPod users do not even consider other brands. Moreover, some companies have introduced solar-powered cases for music gadgets. When the gadgets are running low on battery, they can be charged by inserting the USB or chargers right into the case of the gadget itself. Chubby Buttons’ Wearable Bluetooth Music Remote is also another modern innovation (Cuskaden, 2019). It is these features and outside the box thinking of the innovators which makes their companies highly competitive.

Potential of new entrants

Luenendonk (2019) has analysed the probabilities for new entrants to enter and compete in the markets. The music industry is ever-growing and ever-evolving. There are millions of music numbers which get released into the market from all over the world every day. The advancements in technology have made the use of music gadgets which can stream music 24*7 highly popular among enthusiasts of all ages. There is stiff competition with new entrants being introduced in the market every single day. Melo Ring can compete with these new entrants by manufacturing many more and diverse products, limit their pricing and increase their sales, signalling to the new companies to influence their marketing strategies, using pre-emptive deterrence mechanisms to retain customers and using the technique of predatory pricing to ward off the dangers of losing customers to the new entrants.

Competitive Rivalry

Every day, music gadgets manufacturer companies are introducing completely new, innovative and novel products into the market. The biggest players in the market are companies like Apple with its iTunes store, iPods and iPads, Google with its Music Store in Android devices, companies like Skull Candy, Sennheiser, Bose, Beats by Dr Dre and JBL among others. As newer and newer technologies are being introduced into the market, the competitive rivalry among these companies is also stiffening. Melo Ring can gain a competitive edge in the industry by engaging with its target market on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. It can get its product promoted by influencers on these platforms and bringing in some people to try the product out for some time for free and provide feedback. This will increase the word of mouth reach of the product. Interactive videos of the product can also be released on marketing platforms. Additional interesting features like time display, mood identifying, heart rate calculator, GPS and UPI services can be added to the product to make it more attractive

Power of Suppliers

2012books (n.d.) has mentioned that there is considerable bargaining power with the suppliers due to reasons such as the availability of a huge variation in sound quality devices like speakers, playback fidelity, contracts with other labels and companies and the availability of an ever-increasing number of artists. These factors are responsible for giving a great deal of bargaining power to the suppliers of the industry. The preferred medium of sale for most music labels and artists in iTunes.

Power of Buyers

Schmidke330 (n.d.) has explained the power of buyers of music products. The music industry is facing considerable threat from its buyers. Labels distribute compact disks to retailers while most of the sales happen at the larger brick-and-mortar stores. The issue of piracy and duplication of gadgets has also given buyers enormous power to choose copied gadgets rather than purchasing the original and costlier gadgets. iTunes, Amazon and Google are the largest music sellers in the world today and these can be held responsible for giving buyers the power to go for discounted products.