Week In Review: Facebook Pulls The Rug Out From Publishers. Again; Will Apple Music Buy Tidal?
1. Facebook Pulls The Rug Out From Under Publishers. Again
On Tuesday, we wrote about how “the Duopoly”— Facebook and Google—were the talk of Cannes and how one of the main complaints about the two companies was the fear that they could change the rules at any time.
Well someone at Facebook’s ears must have been burning, because on Wednesday they did just that—changed the rules on how the news feed algorithm works, giving emphasis to a user’s friends and family and de-emphasizing publishers and brands.
Why It Matters
Facebook has spent the past year or so convincing publishers to get on board with it’s Instant Articles platform (articles load faster on mobile) and telling them how much more traffic Instant Articles would drive.
While Facebook (and other social platforms) do drive traffic and are where most Millennials get their news from, it’s also a third party platform that publishers have no control over. That’s why so many of them were afraid of putting so many of their eggs in Facebook’s basket in the first place.
Facebook will claim that they are walking a fine line, that if too many publisher stories appear in the news feed, then people stop using Facebook, which is even more of a problem. The change was necessary in order to keep Facebook’s 1.6 billion users happy and if they’re happy, then they will keep using the platform and seeing the publisher’s stories.
And should, you know, the publishers want to really ensure that their articles get seen, well, Facebook is always happy to sell them advertising and they can run as many dark posts as they’d like.
To our eyes, that seems like a good short term strategy and a pretty horrible long term one. Right now, Facebook has publishers in the headlock. There’s not a whole lot they can do and they are totally reliant on the platform.
We suspect that’s not always going to be the case, and when it’s not, the publishers are not going to make Facebook’s life easy, siding against them and looking to move their budgets elsewhere.
What’s baffling to us is that it would be very easy for Facebook to bring the publishers into the process early on, give them a heads up on what’s about to happen and allow them to plan for it. That would ameliorate a lot of the frustration over the algorithm change.
What You Need To Do About It
If you’re a publisher (or a TV network), make sure you’ve got some money marked for dark posts on Facebook and then look to up your unpaid output on other platforms, Snapchat and Instagram in particular. (We know the latter is owned by Facebook, but it’s still a good venue for many publishers.) Track the amount of traffic you are getting from Facebook to see if it’s dropped and if it does drop considerably, bring it up with them. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.
We’d tell you to stop relying on third party platforms to drive traffic, but that’s sort of where things stand these days—you can’t really avoid doing so and keeping your content inside your own walled garden is only going to result in less traffic.
If you’re Facebook, try playing a little nicer. Yes, they’re your toys and it’s your sandbox, but try sharing. Flies, honey, vinegar and all that.
2. Will Apple Buy Tidal ?
Apple Music is in talks to buy Jay-Z’d Tidal music service. They talks are said to be “ongoing” and not yet serious, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire, especially when the smoke is in the Wall Street Journal.
Why It Matters
Other than Beyoncé, we have not heard of many people downloading Tidal, which does have several exclusive deals with artists (e.g. the late Prince) and a $20 high quality audio stream.
Apple Music claims 15 million paid users but continues to be plagued by user interface issues, though Apple is claiming there will be a complete redesign this fall.
The question is whether they will be able to overtake Spotify, which has continued to grow since the launch of Apple Music and now claims 30 million users.
We’re not so sure they will. Switching music services is a big deal—you’ve got to rebuild all your playlists and favorites and import all your music—and Amazon is rumored to be getting ready to make a redesigned Amazon Music part of the Prime offering.
So there’s that.
There’s also the fact that neither service was a hit the first time out and there aren’t that many second acts online. Users just aren’t that forgiving.
That said, Apple + Jay-Z + exclusive content is a compelling offering and we wouldn’t rule them out so fast.
What You Need To Do About It
Nothing right now other than to sit tight and see if the deal happens and, if it does, see how the new service is received and how many subscribers it has after three months.
The upside to either Apple or Amazon succeeding is that it creates competition, which is always healthy for a market.
