“The Skip”

This is what you’re up against.

Used to be the hard part was getting your track on the radio.

Now the hard part is getting people to listen to the end.

We’ve gone from a captive, limited marketplace to one in which everything is available and you can get me to click, but good luck getting me to stay.

And don’t call it short attention span theatre, call it an incredible b.s. detector. People only want what appeals to them, instantly, that is great.

There are exceptions. Online word of mouth can get people to stay, but that word has to be deafening.

To quote from the article:

“The likelihood that a song will be skipped within the first five seconds is an astounding 24.14%.”

This is utilizing the Spotify data.

And this also illustrates why the hoi polloi enjoy free Pandora for now, but probably not for the future. Because you can’t skip enough!

We only want what we want 24/7.

Track skipped in first ten seconds: 28.97%
Track skipped in first thirty seconds: 35.05%
Track skipped before song finishes: 48.6%