In-stream ads? Could this model work?

[playlikedanko]

SO I was reading Dan Ariely's newest book, and he did an experiment which actually suggested that people enjoy experiences more with intermittent breaks in the action. I believe the experience in the example was a massage. Basically the people who had the interruptions reported enjoying the massage more than those who recieved uninterrupted massages. The interrupted group also expressed a willingness to pay about twice as much to experience the massage uninterrupted -- ironically, though, they would likely end up enjoying it less.

 

So say you take that curious phenomenon and apply it to your band. You offer your album streaming on your website for free, except in between every song there is an ad. Maybe you can even have songs that sort of segue into each other, to really drive home that the experience is being interrupted. Hypothetically, if the listener is enjoying the music enough (and, according to Ariely's study, he is likely enjoying it more now that there are commercial breaks), eventually he/she says "Screw it, I'll pay the $3/$5/$8/$10 and just download the damn thing. Where's my credit card?"

 

And, of course, this model works really well for the musician if the ads are pay-per-listen. That way, even if the cheapskate listener never pays for the download, the artist is still getting paid. If the listener is cheap enough and likes the songs enough, he/she could potentially make more revenue by listening to ads than if they had just bought the download.

 

Now if the ads are pay-per-click, then it's more problematic, because I'm pretty sure that research has shown that most people almost never ever click on ads.

 

So... what do you think?

 

ALSO: Has anyone out there has tried in-stream ads to generate revenue? What service did you use? Was it pay-per-click or pay-per-play?

 

It seems like a decent enough option if one was able to do just piggyback on a googleads type streaming system and just take the 70% cut (or whatever the % is).

[BlueStrat]

I think there's a lot of difference between an intermittent massage and listening to music with ads. We already have that; it's called commercial radio, and it's dying.

 

My wife and I are probably typical TV viewers. We record everything we want to watch on a DVR and watch it later just so we can skip the commercials.

[THAT4301]

Have you ever heard of the 'spotify' service?

 

They do this, and it's so annoying that people just switch off. Also, they have trouble finding advertisers, and end up just putting in adverts for adverts sake telling you to buy a gold account.

 

You could apply the idea of frequent breaks to your songwriting, certaintly, but there's nothing about an advert that makes me anything other than irritated when listening to music.

[playlikedanko]

 

I think there's a lot of difference between an intermittent massage and listening to music with ads. We already have that; it's called commercial radio, and it's dying. My wife and I are probably typical TV viewers. We record everything we want to watch on a DVR and watch it later just so we can skip the commercials.

 

 

Yeah, Ariely actually touches on that, and now that you mention it they DID do an experiment on TV commercial breaks vs. uninterrupted viewing and had the same results as in the massage experiment. And actually, he says that he's sticking with his DVR, despite these findings.

 

But the key here is not really how a person PREFERS to experience something. As Ariely points out, people intuitively want to experience fun, pleasurable experiences uninterrupted -- we don't want to get out of the hot tub to answer the phone, for example, or we want to watch an entire TV season on DVD. That's natural as we want to maximize our pleasure. However, how we intuitively prefer to experience something apparently does not necessarily dictate how much enjoyment we derive from it.

 

The key point in that section was hedonic adaptation. That is, that our enjoyment of good experiences levels off as it wears on, as does our annoyance at bad experiences. To use the hot tub example, after initially getting in, we eventually get used to it. Our enjoyment levels off. Then we get up to answer the phone, comeback and get back in, and what do you know -- our enjoyment is high again. Now OF COURSE this is counter-intuitive -- who actually wants to get out of the hot tub? Yet oddly it seems it's the way our brains work.

[fatusstratus]

 

Yeah, Ariely actually touches on that, and now that you mention it they DID do an experiment on TV commercial breaks vs. uninterrupted viewing and had the same results as in the massage experiment. And actually, he says that he's sticking with his DVR, despite these findings.

 

 

that's can kind of show another part of the deal (I'm pretty new to the DVR, but computer watching, on demand, etc I'm used to --- but I 've noticed something about those)

 

do people actually prefer having the breaks? Oh, I can see how that could be true

 

We take breaks

 

BUT

 

the pause button allows me to choose exactly when and for how long and Iget to chose what I'm doing (arguing about who dunnit, get a beer, stretch my legs, look up that actor who's playing cop #3) so the pause is freeze in the action, not a interruption or intermission.

 

same thing with the hot tub (I have one and I run it on the hot side...like 104) -- getting out to answer the phone just plain sucks

getting out on my time to take a breather and cool down, get a glass of...pick your poison,

spray down with a cold shower, even do the roll in the snow. Fun!

but I choose the interruption, when,for how long, and what goes on during that time

[sventvkg]

nothing using ads in the least bit effective..I hate them and everyone I know hates them. They just annoy people and cause them to download music and make their own playlists. They've been pretty much shown to have little effect on a product or service because of that reason.

[daddymack]

This is being done and failing all over the web; it is the 20th Century radio model being applied to 21st century internet...why would they try something that already is going the way of the dinosaur on the web? Because they have no idea what else to do, no clue as to the way to use the internet effectively for marketing...because...it really was not designed to be a sales tool. Then again, neither was radio or televison or movies, but the greedmeisters subverted the informational and entertainment aspects of media for profit...and, well, here we go again.

[zuzz]

In-stream ads suck. Everybody hates the ads that pop up on YouTube videos and i'm suprised people even turn on a radio.