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While attending the Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park last weekend, I started thinking about the evolution of the music industry and how emerging business models in that industry have changed it.

Performing were legends like Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Metallica and the Foo Fighters, along with newer acts like Jack White, Franz Ferdinand, and Of Monsters and Men, who played music that their fans have accessed in so many different ways. Through the decades, from vinyl to 8-tracks to cassettes to CDs to mp3s, YouTube, and streaming, the music industry continues to evolve, now in the digital economy.

Remember when the only way to legitimately purchase music was at your local record shop? (Of course, depending on your generation, you might have been guilty of copying your buddy’s cassette tape or “borrowing” music from Napster.) In the old days, the concept of a subscription for streaming music was completely absurd, and downloading legal music from websites was a sure-fire way to become a victim of credit card theft.

These days, brick and mortar music stores are quickly becoming a nostalgic thing of the past, as music consumers have choices in how they acquire tunes, specifically from digital music websites like eMusic, Amazon, iTunes, Pandora, MOG and Spotify, just to name a few, which allow subscribers to stream for free or purchase.

The move to digital shows that more and more people are willing to pay for music and content online. Savvy consumers seek out the best sites to subscribe to and purchase from. With so much competition, digital businesses should focus on three keys to long-term success:

• Acquire the best and highest-valued customers and keep them as long as possible
• Increase customer retention by reducing customer churn
• Ability and flexibility to test new business models and pricing plans

Vindicia CashBox and Vindicia Select are designed to enhance your customer acquisition efforts, maximize customer retention and expand your business exponentially and globally. Our clients are digital leaders who have selected Vindicia CashBox to expand their businesses. In addition, our CEO, Gene Hoffman, co-founded eMusic in the late ‘90s, so you can be assured that the music industry is near and dear to Vindicia’s heart. Yes, even those old 8-track cassettes.