CASE STUDY

Sony Music leverages Interact Online Video Platform to tap new monetization opportunities

Sony Music Entertainment is a global recorded music company with a current roster that includes a broad array of local artists and international superstars. The company boasts a vast catalog that comprises some of the most important recordings in history. It is home to premier record labels representing music from every genre, including Arista Records, Beach Street Records, BPG Music, Century Media, Columbia Records, Descendant Records, Disruptor Records, Epic Records, Insanity Records, Kemosabe Records, Legacy Recordings, Masterworks Broadway, Ministry of Sound Recordings, Monument Records, Portrait, RCA Nashville, Relentless Records, Sony Classical, Sony Music Latin, Star Time International, Verity Records and many others. Sony Music Entertainment is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It has offices in over 40 countries around the world.

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In India, more than 3,100 cities fall under the Tier 2 and Tier 3 category, comprising of almost 31.6% of the nation’s total population*. Sony Music wanted to tap the immense potential of this market segment. Their research had revealed that though users in these cities were fond of listening to music and watching music videos, they did not search for music/video apps on Play Store or App Store. Instead, they would directly search for the actor/artist’s name to find content of their interest. Sony Music thus needed to implement a smart, interactive solution that would help reach and engage these users effectively.

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*Source: Socialbeat

Sony Music was already working with PFT for Media Asset Management, Archival, Subtitling, Digitization and Mastering. In July 2018, Sony Music deployed PFT’s Interact Online Video Platform (OVP) to power multiple channels and on-the-fly video apps based on actor/artist names. These apps were rolled out by Sony Music for both iOS and Android devices, and they soon became extremely popular destinations for music lovers to stream original music.

Interact OVP empowered Sony Music with the ability to create apps which were movie specific, as well as apps which contained specially curated music tracks, audio tracks, videos, caller tunes and wallpaper. These apps were created around an ad based video on demand (AVOD) model, earning revenue from advertising across videos, audio clips and banners. Further, Interact OVP offers automation to create native mobile apps at lightning speed, making it possible for Sony Music to craft each app within just a few hours. Throughout the engagement, PFT’s agile team provided 24x7 dedicated customer support, ensuring seamless project management.

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Interact OVP’s unique app factory capabilities enabled Sony Music to release 32 apps in a record time span of just 2 months. These received an excellent response, and have already garnered more than 1.5 million downloads collectively till date. Some of the top performing apps include A.R. Rahman’s Tamil Songs, Dance Project (an app based on the dance reality show aired on Sony Music India’s YouTube channel) and legendary actor Shah Rukh Khan’s Hindi Movie Songs. Sony Music is already taking its engagement with PFT to the next level, with plans to upgrade rest of their existing apps and launch many new ones within the next twelve months.

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PFT’s Interact Online Video Platform has enabled

us to effectively engage music lovers in Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities across India. The apps have

helped us tap new monetization avenues, and have also significantly reduced online piracy by

providing audiences with high quality content which they can easily access on-the-move. We are thrilled

with the speed at which the platform was able to create on-the-fly apps, and we look forward to

launching many similar apps in the future. Throughout the engagement, PFT’s technology prowess and

customer-first approach have been highly commendable.

Aditya MahakulkarSr. Manager, Digital Business,

Sony Music

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About Prime Focus Technologies’ Brands GroupPFT Brands is a one-stop video agency that helps transform brands into digital content destinations that build loyalty. It provides cutting edge content creation and post production services, along with transformational Cloud technology to manage, distribute and monetize content in a cost-effective manner.

PFT Brands works with more than 300 brands, delivers over 5000 media assets every month, and has a proven video advertising experience of over two decades. Some of PFT Brands’ clients include Jio, Vodafone, Nestle, Tata Sky, Future Retail, Soch, Oppo, Brooke Bond Red Label, Kotak Mahindra Bank, TVS, Tata Motors, Star, Viacom and Amazon.

PFT Brands is the creative arm of Prime Focus Technologies (PFT) – the creator of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, CLEAR™ for the Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry.

For more information visit: https://www.primefocustechnologies.com/brands