Jeeni Blog

Helping the next generation of talent to build a global fanbase

Team Jeeni- 4 months today since Lockdown.

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Team Jeeni- 4 months today since Lockdown.

LOCKDOWN
The impact of the pandemic crisis on the Jeeni project continues to be remarkably positive, not least because we have genuinely been able to help hard-hit artists and performers. The decision to open Jeeni for free subscriptions to all-comers in response to lockdown has seen mass sign-ups via our website and online community. 

Yesterday, Jeeni returned to Crowdcube to raise more funds for helping new talent. Jeeni founding director Mel Croucher says, “We’re ahead of our original schedule, but there’s still so much more to do. We need to scale our online platform globally now and build our mass artist showcases to hit all our targets, and give our new artists the recognition they deserve.” We have already reached 90% of our target so if you want to see our pitch click HERE.

Shena Mitchell, Jeeni founding director, says: "I have never worked so hard in my life, but it's actually been a welcomed distraction. I am fortunate that I have been working from home for many years, so no change there, and fortunate to be living in a house with an office and a garden. Living on my own 24/7 for 120 days has been a challenge. Working with musicians and performers in lockdown has been a massive privilege, listening to music all day and watching magical performances is a treat for me, as up until 2 years ago I was mainly working in academia and public sector fundraising for start-ups, which I loved. But working with Team Jeeni creatives is a dream come true.

Most importantly, during this time of lockdown we have been able to reduce the cost of acquisition from £3 an artist to zero, and has again proved the concepts successfully pioneered in our Directors' previous marketing campaigns. We are connecting, collaborating, sharing and supporting each other, while we have fun and make a real difference, and we are delivering well.

We now have over 27,000 unsigned artists waiting to be uploaded, with over a 1,000 new artists joining every day. As predicted, once the flood gates opened we would have plenty of content and could easily reach 100,000 videos relatively fast at no cost. However, we need to carefully balance our success against storage and streaming costs and that is why we have decided to relaunch Jeeni as a paid subscription service." 

Jeeni aim to raise £100k for 2.4% equity with a pre-money valuation of £4million.

Jeeni is needed more now than ever and we have proven that the demand is high. Jeeni Generation-4 will only support 100,000 videos, so we must now embrace Generation-5 as we head for global roll-out.

TEAM 

We are pleased to welcome five new members to Team Jeeni.

Andrea Harding: Social Media. Dedicated to reaching out to new audiences, spreading the word about Jeeni artists, and helping build their fanbases.

Sharron Goodyear: Image Maker. Photographer of the Year Winner, Jeeni official photographer for artists, performers, promotions and events, specialising in online virtual shoots. 

Sammie Venn: Writer, Columnist and Blogger. Syndicating Jeeni news, interviewing and promoting our members, and spearheading our poetry and drama channels.

Louis Mitchell: Video Wrangler. Identifying up-and-coming unsigned musicians, performers and dancers focused on Asian Hip Hop, Grunge and Rap.

Lizzie Crow. Popular presenter for the BBC and top commercial broadcasters, and our go-to expert for voice-overs, podcasts, jingles and spoken word channels. 

Click HERE to visit or return to jeeni.com

05
Jun

Global Online Music Streaming Grew 32% to over 350 Million Subscriptions in 2019

By Abhilash Kumar Spotify continues to be the market leader and recorded a 23% YoY growth in total revenue during CY 2019.Music streamers are focusing on creating exclusive content with podcasts continuing to feature strongly in 2020. Seoul, Hong Kong, New Delhi, Beijing, London, Buenos Aires, San Diego – 3rd April 2020 Global online music streaming subscriptions grew 32% year-on-year (YoY) reaching 358 million subscriptions in CY 2019, according to the latest findings from Counterpoint Research. This is driven by the availability of exclusive content like podcasts, originals which attracted people towards the platform and eventually turned them as subscribers. Also, promotional activities like price cuts in subscriptions in emerging markets, bundled offers from telcos added to the growth. We expect that online music streaming subscriptions to grow more than 25% YoY to exceed 450 million subscriptions by the end of 2020. Commenting on the overall market, Research Analyst, Abhilash Kumar, said, “Paid subscriptions grew 32% YoY compared to 23% YoY growth of total MAUs. This suggests people are ready to pay for music streaming for a hassle-free experience.  However, this is not completely user-driven. Music streaming platforms are following a two-step approach to gain subscribers, first registering them to their platform as free users by means of excellent advertising campaigns and secondly pitching them with attractive offers to transfer them to become paying subscribers.” Spotify topped CY 2019 grabbing a 31% share of the total revenue and a 35% share of the total paid subscriptions. The runner up, Apple Music, follows with a 24% share of total revenues in the industry and a 19% share of the total paid subscriptions. Due to Apple’s high focus on its services segment which includes Apple Music, its subscription base grew 36% YoY in CY 2019. Amazon Music subscriptions reached a 15% share in 2019 compared to 10% in 2018. Talking about the top performers, Kumar added, “Spotify maintained its top spot with the help of promotional activities like free Spotify Premium for three months, price cuts, customized campaigns like Spotify and a focus on exclusive content. Tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Google have started focusing on music streaming and have sufficient cash at their disposal to give stiff competition to Spotify. Apple Music is making improvements in its app like the introduction of night mode, curated playlists to target a group, etc. Similarly, Amazon Music has been trying lossless music and is creating its own niche where it competes with Tidal.” Despite global players strongly pushing their music streaming platforms, regional players stand strong in their respective regions, primarily because of regional exposure and high focus on local content. Gaana continues to be the no.1 player in the Indian market, Yandex Music is leading in Russia. Similarly, Anghami leads the Arab world. Tencent Music Group leads the China market with the help of its apps QQ Music, Kugou and Kuwo. Discussing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the OTT industry, Kumar added, “We expect the OTT sector will experience an uptick as people stay at home actively tracking the latest updates. During this outbreak, audio OTT consumption has switched from music streaming to the radio. People in highly affected areas are worried about the outbreak and are therefore continuously tuned to news on TV/radio for updates. The traction of news channels and podcasts saw an upswing while that for music streaming dropped.” What’s common is that both the regional and global players are focusing a lot on building exclusive content. Acquiring podcast companies and creating their own channels are all being undertaken. It’s often exclusive content that drives paid subscription growth. More than 80% of music streaming revenue came from paid subscriptions. The rest came from advertisements and partnerships with brands and telcos. Therefore, increasing paid subscriptions is of prime importance for music streaming platforms. The comprehensive and in-depth chain of reports on Global Online Music Streaming Market for Q4 2019 is available to help track the market in terms of MAUs by region, paid subscriptions by region, revenues, and ARPU. To view the global report in terms of users, revenues and ARPU, click here. For regional analysis on MAUs and paid subscriptions, click here. Please contact press(at)counterpointresearch.com for further questions regarding our in-depth research, insights or other press inquiries. Background: Counterpoint Technology Market Research is a global research firm specializing in Technology products in the TMT industry. It services major technology firms and financial firms with a mix of monthly reports, customized projects and detailed analysis of the mobile and technology markets. Its key analysts are experts in the industry with an average tenure of 13 years in the high-tech industry. Click HERE to visit or return to jeeni.com

10
Apr

Daisy Chute on Music, Performing and Life during 2020

Tonight, is the night that we launch the JAM Festival where seventeen acts from around the world will beat the pandemic restrictions and join together to perform in a virtual festival called JAM, and they guarantee complete unknowns will get equal billing with world-famous headliners. So please register that you are Going or Interested, and we will keep you posted each day of acts and keep you informed about their performances. Please like, share and invite your friends to join in the fun, it's going to be awesome. https://fb.me/e/1etPauFMV Don't worry if your busy or miss it, we will be featuring the festival on Jeeni.com from the 11th of April 2021, for you to watch when you are next free. Ahead of the JAM Festival we had a quick catch up with Daisy Chute who is a favourite of mine as Daisy kept me company with her live streams all the way through lock down, most charming, and talented artist who is so lovely she just makes your heart melt. Daisy tells us: “I am really enjoying the sunny weather and I am very much looking forward to summer and performing at gigs again in person”! In the last 12 months Daisy fairly quickly started doing live streams as a replacement for gigs and festivals that she was supposed to be at such as Glastonbury and the Cambridge festival. Daisy was doing online shows which she said was ‘better than nothing’ due to the pandemic. Daisy said: “through the online shows and livestreams etc she was able to connect with many people internationally which she said was ‘really lovely and enabled her to build more of a following and connect with fans on an international scale’ which she wouldn't have been able to-do on a tour.” Daisy said:  “during this pandemic, she tried to use the time as best as she could to connect with her fans through the livestreams”! Kate asked Daisy: “Have you missed live performances”? “Absolutely’ the live streams are kind of like live performances, but they don’t feel the same because you don’t have the same connection and it’s much more casual! I miss performing with my band as I have not been able to see them during this time so my livestreams have also been missing that element of energy and adrenaline when performing a set. I am a very social person and I really miss the atmosphere of being at a gig and having drinks with friends and getting back to being in gig – performing and watching.” Kate asked Daisy: “are you excited to showcase your track”? ‘ABSOLOUTELY yes!’ “I love what Jeeni are doing, and I love how supportive the team are to all the artists and I am very grateful for these opportunities to work with some amazing people. I think the showcases and the festivals are so important and they keep the artists going and keep them motivated and connected”! Daisy also overfunded on her Rocket fuel campaign which was amazing and if you want to find out more check out her page here: https://rocketfuelhq.com/daisy-chute Daisy was raising the funds to help make some new music for Daisy’s Singles Club. Daisy reaching her target a week early, which is amazing. But you can still get involved as Daisy has decided to do a “Stretch Goal” to see if she can get some further support to make a series of new videos and Daisy will have new things on offer until 31 March 2021.  You can still get involved by buying something, subscribing monthly or making a one-off contribution.   Here is a video telling you all about it. https://youtu.be/0j-defCFQvA Best of luck Daisy we know you will be a great success and you have 100% support from Team Jeeni.

18
Mar

The Hardships of Getting a Job in the Music Industry

When an area of employment is as culturally, historically and economically important as the music industry, it’s hardly going to be a walk in the park to insert oneself into it. Despite the giant range of positions and opportunities, a mountain of deciding factors and conditions stand in the way of graduates and the enticing notion of working in music. Many corners of employment have their difficulties, whether it’s overwhelming competition from like-minded hopefuls or a seemingly unfair demand for experience but the music industry seems to set up these hurdles at steeper heights than most.  This is why companies like Jeeni can be an answered prayer for optimistic music graduates that are seeking experience in this confusing and challenging industry. Jeeni is always looking for fresh young talent to help its gears run smoothly and efficiently so that more support can be provided and offered to unrepresented artists, meaning that Jeeni holds out a helping hand to upcoming talents in the industry in more ways than one.  Music is still a growing industry with a 7% increase in employment from 2017 to 2018 (UK Music, Music By Numbers 2019 report) which sounds like a great thing and it is, however this is also a rise in competition due to an unprecedented increase in revenue from the music industry, according to Goldman Sachs, “In May 2020, Goldman Sachs estimated the entire music industry's revenue (live, recorded, and publishing) to increase from $62 billion in 2017 to $131 billion in 2030, representing a 6% CAGR. The 2030 estimate was an increase on its original prediction of $104 billion, made in October 2016.” (Toptal.com, ‘The State of The Music Industry in 2020’) Business is booming for the music world which means everyone is looking for the best and they aren’t willing to take a chance on anyone without near-impossible standards of experience. However, music graduates can begin their climb to greatness with companies like Jeeni  A testimonial from Jeeni’s Marketing Leader, music production graduate, Ella Venvell offers an insight in the uphill battle that finding a future in the music industry can prove to be, “I always knew finding a job within the music industry would be challenging but I didn’t know just how hard it was! Even though I have a musical background and have a degree in music production, that alone was not enough. As the music industry is quite niche, most companies ask for years of experience to prove your abilities and knowledge, however, nowhere is willing to give you the experience!”  Jeeni Marketing intern, Annesa Sukul decided to begin building up her music industry experience with Jeeni and has been a total asset to the entire company in research, maintaining artist relationships and so much more. She was taken on at Jeeni amidst her studies and given a chance to contribute her skills and hard work to the team, ‘As a music business student, it is quite difficult to get into the music industry if you don’t know where to look. Often times when someone doesn’t have experience, the first thing would be to look for a work placement or an internship. However, most of these tend to also ask for previous experience and would leave one feeling lost as to where to gain this experience.”  As an intern at Jeeni, Annesa still has a say in the type of tasks she carries out and is given roles that challenges her and puts her specified skills to the test. As well as simply giving interns experience on paper, we try to truly set them up for success in their future roles by giving them chances to propose new ideas and contribute to the company in a hands-on and proactive way, which is all useful inclusions to CVs and portfolios. Annesa also has access to a supportive team to help her with her time at Jeeni in any way she needs.  As Jeeni still finds itself in an early stage of its journey, we’re in a position where we can provide much-needed experience for people like Ella and Annesa to prepare them for their future careers in music and put them to good use in furthering the reach and effectiveness of Jeeni’s mission.