The Audio Ecosystem and the Case for Audio.com

Voice.com by Block.one

10 days ago (May 30, 2019), the ultra-premium domain Voice.com found itself a new owner, at an estimated 7-figure sale price.

(update June 19 - Voice.com has now been confirmed as a record-breaking $30M USD cash purchase : https://domainnamewire.com/2019/06/18/record-breaker-voice-com-domain-name-sells-for-staggering-30-million/ )

Block.one, one of the biggest names and success stories to come out of the Blockchain world, bought the domain as an exact match for their upcoming Voice.com, blockchain enabled social network.

Video.com by Disney

Meanwhile, Disney Entertainment has been holding onto their Video.com domain since the 90s. With no likelihood of them releasing it anytime-ever.

… Even though many video-first platforms, not the least of which include YouTube and Netflix (let alone the “old guard” cable/video media companies) would be perfectly happy to take ownership.

Audio.com by _______?

What about Audio.com? It has been privately held until recently. Now, Audio.com is up for sale. (DISCLAIMER: My company, OODIENCE is contracted for the demand generation and sale of the domain).

Just as fun as such a rare sale of an “ultra-premium” category, vertical-specific domain going up for sale … is a look at the audio landscape as a whole. Complete with cushions that let you feel audio through your skin, private audio listening without the need for headphones, audio streaming battles, voice-command speakers and more…

The Audio Ecosystem 2019

The audio economy has many tentacles.

1. Audio and radio streaming (Spotify, Pandora, Deezer, XimalayaFM, Slacker, JOOX, iHeartRadio, SiriusXM, Qobuz, TuneIn)
2. Audio tech and innovation (Noveto, FLEXOUND, 3D Sound Labs, Dysonics, Ossic, Kinicho)
3. Smart speakers / Voice command speakers (Sonos, Amazon Echo, Amazon Alexa, Apple HomePod, Ambeo)
4. Audio Podcasting, Publishing and Media (Audible, NPR, Gimlet, Luminary, Genius, Audioburst, Castbox)
5. Luxury, Premium Sound (Sennheiser, Beats, POW Audio, Odin AudioSystems, HARMAN, Audison, Bose)

Each of those is, of course, a very partial list.

And these don’t include the multi-decade old speaker manufacturers, the audio software (editing, mixing) tech, audio programmatic (audio ads) and the many other sub-markets within any of these.

Audio is big.

While video had its moment (many years of that moment) during the smartphone, post-YouTube boom … audio is owning the conversation in 2019.

Stats. Facts. News. Acquisitions. And CEO Quotes.

-         Spotify’s Daniel Ek announced the company’s position as not a music streaming but an “Audio First” [https://newsroom.spotify.com/2019-02-06/audio-first/ ] company, in line with their podcast network shopping spree (Gimlet, Anchor, Parcast) . The largest investments into podcast media, to date. This also earned Spotify the new labels “The Netflix of Podcasts” and, elsewhere “The Disney of Podcasts”. I think they are just the Spotify of Podcasts.

In fact, Spotify is being watched as a trend-setter in the space… having also just signed Barack and Michelle Obama’s podcast company [reference: https://www.fastcompany.com/90360437/barack-and-michelle-obamas-podcast-company-signs-to-spotify ].

-         Just two weeks ago, probably inspired by the Spotify deals, the “Podcast Ecosystem” report was published by Li Jin, Avery Segal, and Bennett Carroccio of Andreessen Horowitz investment firm. [reference: https://a16z.com/2019/05/23/podcast-ecosystem-investing-2019/ ]

Possibly the most influential venture capital firm in the English-speaking world has now given their industry-thumbs-up for all things podcasting and audio. And this means, right now, this seed has been planted across a whole industry of venture capital and private equity firms – and is creating discussion in many meetings as these firms plan to get active in podcasts and audio.

-         Of course, Amazon owns Audible, the largest audio-book streaming service. That acquisition dates back 10 years (and was worth $300million). But now their line of smart speakers and voice controls with Alexa and Echo … and their in-the-works Project Dylan, which promises to read and understand emotion from your voice … they’ll continue to be a front-runner in the audio market.

-         Apple’s top 10 investments of all time tells a similar story of a focus on audio. By a large margin, coming in at $3Billion, their purchase of Beats (headphones and music streaming) in 2014 and their late 2018 purchase of Shazam ($400M) is their 4th largest M&A deal.

-         Facebook patented a bone-conduction headset “that sends sound straight to your skull” [reference: https://www.cbinsights.com/research/facebook-oculus-vr-audio-sound/ ]

-         Over in China, Ximalaya FM is sitting with a recent $580M raised (Aug 2018) at a $3.6B valuation with over 530 million users – their product is “audio content in every form”.

-         Finland based Flexound gets your skin and touch involved in “listening” with their augmented audio being rolled out in movie theatre seats and home cushions. As their webpage says: “Let your skin do the listening.”

-         Spatial Sound or “3D Audio” will now help firefighters navigate smoke and flame filled buildings – and students of “3d audio” continue to build on this AR technology. [reference: https://www.eng.ufl.edu/newengineer/news/mcmullen-nsf-career/ ]

-         Just days ago, iHeartRadio signed a deal that will now place its service in the hands of every LYFT and UBER passenger in a growing list of major US cities. [reference: https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/186857/iheartradio-inks-deal-to-be-exclusive-audio-servic ]

-         Israel-based Noveto has developed “virtual earphones” or “focused audio” that allows for private, in ear listening – without ever needing headphones (of any sort) again.

-         Sonos, makers of premium, multi-room, voice-command, smart speakers hit a record second quarter this year.

-         Market data authority CBInsights reported that “Realistic, Responsive Audio Is the Next Frontier in VR Innovation” back in 2018 [reference: https://www.cbinsights.com/research/vr-audio-tech/ ] . Tip: #CBInsights is the closest thing to a crystal ball on the Internet.

-         Walmart has now rolled out voice ordering for its online grocery service through Google Assistant. Sure, you can do the same via Amazon’s Alexa (and a now very quickly growing list of retailers and their partnered devices) … but Walmart is the world’s largest company by revenue (vs valuation) and isn’t a “tech” company. This certainly pushes voice-controlled shopping further into the mainstream.

-         Gimlet's founders Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber set out to build the "HBO of Audio" (or, at least, did a great job positioning themsleves with that borrowed authority) -- and ended up acquired by Spotify.

-         Michael Mignano, Co-founder of Anchor (also acquired by Spotify), wrote this in a Quora response: "Audio is actually the most flexible medium for content: it’s fast, it’s easy to multitask, it’s engaging without being so distracting that you have to stop whatever you’re doing to enjoy it. Podcasts, which were once a subculture, now reach as many people in the U.S. monthly as Twitter does (around 67 million, to be exact). This is still a burgeoning industry, but it’s growing fast, and audiences are looking for ways to express their thoughts on what they’re listening to - not to mention getting involved by becoming creators on their own, and ultimately making money from their work."

-         Andreas Sennheiser, CEO, Sennheiser said in a May 24, 2019 interview: "For me, picture is information, audio is emotion. More and more people understand this relevance."

-         In all recent earnings calls, Jeff Bezos continues to reference and highlight the importance of audio and voice to Amazon's future.

-         How important is audio in VR content? “Binaural audio is critical to an immersive experience within the context of VR. We consider audio to be 50 percent of the immersive experience.” says Adam Somers, Engineering Manager of JauntVR.

-         “We believe we are in the golden age of audio,” boasts Sonos CEO Patrick Spence in an interview with Yahoo Finance. (Feb 2019)

-         Late last year, WIRED reported on how Sonos is building the Audio Internet. [reference: https://www.wired.com/story/sonos-nick-millington-exclusive-interview/ ]

-         And just this January 2019 – Sirius XM completed their purchase of Pandora – a whopping $3.5Billion dollar deal.

Audio.com – What’s In An Authority Name?

The audio-scape is active. Investments, acquisitions, tech innovations…

Which brings us back to Audio.com, the premium domain now up for sale.

What’s the relevance of owning such a domain.

Let’s talk Adobe. And their CMO.com.

Adobe caters to the B2B, particularly enterprise market.

As a content-marketing and media play, they developed the target-demographic relevant and immediately authority credibility domain: CMO.com.

Today CMO.com is “one of the most successful branded content titles on the web. It's also a pioneer in B2B content marketing, with its stated remit of ‘helping CMOs and senior marketers lead their brands in this new digital world’”.

Whether it’s Adobe owned CMO.com, Block.one’s newly purchased Voice.com or Disney’s Video.com … these domains immediately accomplish the following:

-         They are directly relevant to their target demographic.

-         Immediately identify their product offering. (What are they about).

-         Provide enforced or instant credibility.

Owning a category specific premium domain is a piece of digital real estate that’s on par with having the tallest commercial building downtown.

It establishes brand-dominance and credibility.

Think of getting an email from [email protected] versus [email protected] … if you’re in the audio space, which one catches your attention the most? (Or to nourish the ego a bit – [email protected] becomes an option.)

As domains tend to increase in asset value, it’s also an intelligent investment.

It strengthens the overall asset package in a possible exit-event.

Such a domain enjoys a lot of type-in and curiosity traffic. Though for the brands buying at this level, their own channels and exposure are already substantial and this becomes inconsequential – but it’s still added market reach without any ad spend. Ever.

Company vision. Few things communicate and cement the company vision better to staff, channel partners, vendors, stakeholders, industry that owning the single most relevant domain in that market.

And also just as fun – ownership of the domain removes all these benefit opportunities from the competition. Much like the many television, video tech and video streaming suitors that would happily pursue Disney’s video.com and use it for their own benefit… unfortunately that opportunity isn’t available to them.

How Much? What’s a Domain Worth?

Ultra-premium domain names are often bought with a combination of:

• Money
• Time
• Luck

Most often, the ultra-premium classified domains are pursued for months or years to then have the right and opportunity to spend 7 or multi-7 figures on them. Examples…

Aaron Patzer, Mint.com (previously MyMint.com). Patzer reportedly spent three months and $182,000 in negotiations fees for the Mint.com domain name. He then paid approximately $1 million plus 3% of the company for it. Within 2 years of the name change, Patzer sold Mint.com for $170 Million. That 3% equity, upon the company's sale, was worth $8.1M. In effect, he paid nearly $10M to own Mint.com but it helped him towards his $170M exit. [reference: https://www.namepros.com/threads/buyers-of-ultra-premium-domain-names-share-these-5-traits.1075671/ ]

Jamie Siminoff, Ring.com (previously Doorbot.com). After a long pursuit, the domain acquisition ended at an eventual purchase price of $1M. "Putting it in dollar terms he said he would estimate the name turned out to be worth between $30 million and $50 million to the company." Ring.com was soon after acquired by Amazon for $1 Billion. [reference: https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2018/dailyposts/20180307.htm ]

The Newark Nut Company, Nuts.com (previously NutsOnline.com). The Newark Nut Company began in 1929 as a brick and mortar store, bringing in $1.25 million in 2002. They decided to launch a website, NutsOnline.com. Annual sales reached $5 million, but customers still had a problem remembering their domain name. The owners subsequently purchased Nuts.com for a great price: $700,000. They expected to recoup its investment in 10 years when they bought the domain- they recouped it in their first 6 months. Sales grew to $35 million.

Noah Kagan, Sumo.com (previously SumoMe.com). 6 years of negotiation effort and $1.5M eventual purchase price. As Austin, Texas based entrepreneur Noah Kagan writes: "We hired multiple private domain sleuths to help us acquire the domain (#failed); we bought SumoS.com to help make us feel better (it didn’t); people sent fake emails on our behalf to see if the owners would sell (they didn’t). And, I sent this email every six months for seven straight years…" [reference: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/288629 ]

Brian Thomas, Clutter.com (previously Clutter.io). Over two years of pursuit for a domain that was "definitely not for sale" (standard negotiation tactic to generate pain in the Buyer and drive up the price). It worked. A speculated 7-figure sum was paid for the eventual purchase of Clutter.com allowing for a rebrand from the former Clutter.io. [reference: https://www.namepros.com/blog/clutter-finally-acquires-clutter-com.889133/ ]

Others...

ICE.com for $3.5 million in 2018

California.com for $3M, earlier this year (2019). (They’re doing something great there – kudos to the buyer Payam Zamani and their OnePlanet Ops team.

Software.com sold for $3.2M (incidentally by one of the Sonos' smart speakers Founders).

And now look at these prices…

Insurance.com - $35.6M

Insure.com - $16M

Investing.com - $2.5 Million

Invest.com - $5 Million

Investor.com - (unconfirmed - estimated as a multiple 7-figure transaction)

… Notice those variations of the root words Insure and Invest…

Audio.com has a stronger authority value than Insure, Invest and similar as there aren't any suffix alternatives of audio other than the plural.

There isn't audio-or, audio-ance, audio-ing, audio-ment.

It's just simple, clean, elegant: Audio.com

And it’s available for sale.

For serious enquiries, write to [email protected] .