Today, we're taking a look at how subscribers can fuel revenue. We're also shining the spotlight on Patty McCord: the people professional who went from bopping around border towns to streaming giant Netflix, where she created a sort of Bible for culture for some of the biggest names in the Bay Area. 

Today's Top Subscription News

Subscription Economy Powers Growth 

The music business is booming and it’s all thanks to the subscription economy.

A Wall Street Journal article says revenue from recorded music in the U.S. rose 18% to $5.4 billion in the first half of the year, driven by growth in subscriptions to streaming services such as Spotify, Apple, and Amazon.

WSJ also reports that paid streaming services added more than one million new subscriptions a month in the period. 

It’ll be interesting to see how subscription streaming will continue to power growth in the music industry

Workday Beats Estimates

Workday, a company that sells software for human capital management, beat its earnings and sales estimates for the second quarter. The company is also raising its outlook for subscription revenue.

Investor's Business Daily reported that Workday said adjusted earnings were 44 cents up a share, up 42% from a year earlier, with revenue rising 32% to $888 million. 

Workday CFO Robynne Sisco says, “Based on our second-quarter results, we are raising our fiscal 20-20 subscription revenue outlook and now expect subscription revenue of 3.06 to 3.07 billion dollars.”

Pretty cool stuff.

Anatomy of a Broken Email

Tell me a greater pain than spending hours crafting the perfect email...only to find out there’s broken links, rendering issues, or it landed in your subscriber’s spam folder. 

We might have found an ebook that can help. It's by Litmus, an email software company. The ebook is called “The Anatomy of a Broken Email” and will take you through the most common email mistakes, how to email test, and why you should email test. 

Download today at Litmus.com 

Deep Dive

Washington Post Masthead

We’re eyeing the Washington Post, as it unveils a new masthead this week, and for the first time ever includes a vice president of product, Kat Downs Mulder, an 11-year-veteran of the publication. This is all in a push to lure new subscribers. 

A large part of the Post's product push will focus on personalization within apps, paywalls, and email to engage current and potential subscribers, because subscribers who visit the Post’s apps now consume three times more content than subscribers to its website. 

Last year, the New York Times looked to quite the same strategy, as it aimed to build subscription products for its portfolio with a new products and ventures team. Planned products were just one of many ways the Times had gotten more focused on growing subscription revenue, the Times’ largest revenue stream. 

The Post's product push comes as the company continues to put most of its resources and focus into accruing and retaining subscribers. CEO and publisher Fred Ryan attests,

"We view The Washington Post as a subscription product and any non-subscriber access is viewed as sampling in hopes that the reader becomes a subscriber.”

It's all for the goal of total subscription domination. 

Subscription Sapiens

Today's Subscription Sapien is Patty McCord, who worked 14 years as chief talent officer at Netflix, completely transformed traditional workplace culture, and is a self-proclaimed cultural anthropologist. Currently, McCord coaches and advises companies and entrepreneurs on culture and leadership. Her approach to workplace culture has startups and corporations perceiving her as a 'powerhouse of fresh air.' McCord once said in a TED Talk, 

"We've created so many layers and so many processes and so many guidelines to keep those employees in place that we've ended up with systems that treat people like they're children. And they're not. Fully formed adults walk in the door every single day. They have rent payments. They have obligations. They're members of society. They want to create a difference in the world. So if we start with the assumption that everybody comes to work to do an amazing job, you'd be surprised what you get." 

And that’s a wrap for your September 9th subscription news. Recruit your friends into the subscription know by sending them to profitwell.com/recur/recurnow to sign up for episodes on the daily.