Travel needs to follow in music’s footsteps

Couple applying for mortgage, talking to clerk (B&W)
By Hannah Edensor


The travel industry can draw some useful insights from the disruption of the music industry, according to online music-sharing platform Spotify.

Speaking at the TRAVELtech conference in Sydney last week, the company’s head of business development AU/NZ Michael Richardson highlighted the similarities between the two industries.

“Travel is kind of where the music business was about five years ago,” he explained.

Record labels had traditionally focused on bricks and mortar retail as their main source of revenue until the advent of digital, much like travel agencies.

“The music business has really had to change the way it operates to multiple revenue streams, much like the travel industry.”

Revenues generated by digital music finally catching up with those made from the sale of physical music last year, representing an historic shift.

But Richardson also spoke of the power of music to inspire travel, by taking you back to a moment in time through an association or memory.

And this is exactly the kind of disruption we keep banging on about with our Travel DAZE event coming up on November 30.

Spotify’s managing director for AU/NZ Kate Vale is one of the highly sought-after speakers we’re boasting, heading up all aspects of the business at Spotify for the region, managing a team of sixteen (and growing) in Sydney.

With a strong head for business and unique flair for digital & search, Vale has enjoyed a hugely distinguished career spanning 14 years in some of the most prestigious digital environments in the world including Google and YouTube.

To hear more about what she has to say on how travel can learn from the musical disruption, grab your tickets here.

The apocalypse is coming. Are you ready?

Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

    Latest comments

    1. Always great to get a fresh perspective from someone outside the industry but I’ve seen plenty of people try to bring successful ideas from other industries across to travel only to learn the hard way that travel is not as straight-forward as they think. For Mr Richardson to say that travel is in some way 5 years behind the music industry is perhaps a little shallow.
      We cannot leave out the fundamental difference, which is to say that where music was once a physical product, it is now largely a service (which of course is perfect for online disruption). Travel by contrast has always been and continues to be a service. And yes, while travel will certainly change in the years ahead, it was able to monetise online well before music (via OTA’s gaining traction in the early 2000’s). I do concede the rate of change in travel may accelerate in the next few years but that is enabled by a decade long platform of innovation, not a change from product to service.

      To my mind, metasearch in travel is a better correlation with Spotify. There are certainly similarities there. Both may have a long term negative impact on their industries and coincidently both started around the same time.

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