Behind every online mashup, there's an API (or two). That's short for applications programming interface, a set of commands that lets programmers write new code that controls an existing piece of software. Many APIs are proprietary, but the Net is full of open APIs that let anyone, say, play a YouTube video on their own Web page or overlay bike routes on a Google map. At today's SF MusicTech Summit at the Kabuki Hotel in San Franscisco, a panel of dyed-in-the-wool geeks urged the music industry to embrace open APIs as the foundation of a new kind of music industry.
Exhibit A: JamBase, an online concert database founded in 1998. In the early days, says founder Andy Gadiel, managers, promoters, and ticket sellers were loathe to share information about performance dates and venues. So Jambase made it as easy and powerful as possible, offering a public API that funneled the data directly to its own site and, at the same time, made the same information available to other developers who might find clever things to do with it. The suits changed their minds as the online community transformed JamBase data into tour maps, performance calendars, and Internet radio programming, all of which promoted concerts without requiring the businesspeople to lift a finger. For instance, iConcertCal mashes up JamBase with your iTunes music library, letting you know when your favorite artists are playing nearby.
Gadiel doesn't worry that JamBase is giving away the store. In his view, the company's value is aggregating data and putting it in a consistent, useful format - not holding onto it. He has built a solid business helping managers, venues, and record companies promote their products and services (not to mention selling ads on its site), while spawning innumerable sites that combine JamBase content with data drawn from Facebook, Flickr, Justin.tv, Netflix, Skype, ad infinitum. "It's a weird spider Web of data," says Lee Martin of Silva Artist Management, who drew on Twitter and Imeem APIs to create twt.fm, which lets artists he handles tweet songs rather than having to come up with a 140-character quip.
The upshot is that, from the audience's point of view, music - or any kind of information, for that matter - no longer emanates from a centralized source. Instead, it reaches listeners' ears through a plethora of tweets, blogs, widgets, apps, social nets, search services, recommendation engines, and the personal messages from the artists themselves. "Every session at this summit has talked about things heading in that direction," said panelist Jason Feinberg, who offers music marketing services through On Target Media. Ultimately, some sites on the Net will provide content, while others provide context - and users will see neither, but a combination of the two.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Google = Celestial Jukebox
The mighty Google is a wonder to behold, but when it comes to finding music, the G-Spot has been less than satisfying. I've been in the habit of starting my search for instant aural gratification on YouTube - which wasn't much better, but at least I could listen to the search results.
Not anymore. In October, Google quietly rolled out its new music search service, and today, at the SF MusicTech Summit in San Francisco, Google exec RJ Pittman offered a closer look at what the company has in mind. In keeping with the corporate goal of "organizing all the world's information and making it universally accessible," Google Music Search affords one-click access to free streams delivered by its partners, conveniently linked in a pop-up box with an option to pay for a download. It exactly what you'd expect from Google: Simple, intuitive, and - well, it's not comprehensive yet, but the potential is there. "We're at version 0.9, beta 2," Pittman said.
"Sometimes you're away from a computer when you discover music," he continued. "You might not know who performed the song or who wrote it, but we want to make sure you find it." The service isn't quite there yet, but it's on its way. If you type in a snippet of lyric, Google frequently returns a link to the song it came from, though it may not top the results. (However, it failed my test "a butterfly child, so free and so wild," despite two recordings of the British Invasion-era hit "Jessamine," by the Casuals and the Bystanders.)
Emphasizing the strategy he called "search-driven, partner-delivered," Pittman led a panel of partners through a discussion of the challenges facing digital music distribution. Reps were on hand from MySpace, iLike, Gracenote, Pandora, and YouTube (missing in action: Lala, iMeem, Rhapsody, EMI, WB). The themes here were integration and reach. MySpace, for instance, is making sure that any music posted by its community ends up in Google search results, while Pandora is intent on delivering streams anywhere, any time. Pandora CTO Tom Conrad said the company has been busily certifying consumer electronics that carry the service and hinted that an "automotive solution" would ship in 2010. Meanwhile, Gracenote senior VP is bent on folding metadata - everything from liner notes to what's in your iTunes library - into the Google Music Search experience. The fact that YouTube is on the partner list suggests that search results eventually will include video clips.
Clearly, the new service is in its early phase. The catalog is spotty, licensing issues are thorny, and it doesn't yet differentiate between cover versions and songs with the same title. But it's a big step forward, and a boon to anyone who just wants to hear a song quickly, free of charge, without filling in registration forms or surrendering personal details - and presumably, when the dust settles, to recording artists and songwriters as well.
Not anymore. In October, Google quietly rolled out its new music search service, and today, at the SF MusicTech Summit in San Francisco, Google exec RJ Pittman offered a closer look at what the company has in mind. In keeping with the corporate goal of "organizing all the world's information and making it universally accessible," Google Music Search affords one-click access to free streams delivered by its partners, conveniently linked in a pop-up box with an option to pay for a download. It exactly what you'd expect from Google: Simple, intuitive, and - well, it's not comprehensive yet, but the potential is there. "We're at version 0.9, beta 2," Pittman said.
"Sometimes you're away from a computer when you discover music," he continued. "You might not know who performed the song or who wrote it, but we want to make sure you find it." The service isn't quite there yet, but it's on its way. If you type in a snippet of lyric, Google frequently returns a link to the song it came from, though it may not top the results. (However, it failed my test "a butterfly child, so free and so wild," despite two recordings of the British Invasion-era hit "Jessamine," by the Casuals and the Bystanders.)
Emphasizing the strategy he called "search-driven, partner-delivered," Pittman led a panel of partners through a discussion of the challenges facing digital music distribution. Reps were on hand from MySpace, iLike, Gracenote, Pandora, and YouTube (missing in action: Lala, iMeem, Rhapsody, EMI, WB). The themes here were integration and reach. MySpace, for instance, is making sure that any music posted by its community ends up in Google search results, while Pandora is intent on delivering streams anywhere, any time. Pandora CTO Tom Conrad said the company has been busily certifying consumer electronics that carry the service and hinted that an "automotive solution" would ship in 2010. Meanwhile, Gracenote senior VP is bent on folding metadata - everything from liner notes to what's in your iTunes library - into the Google Music Search experience. The fact that YouTube is on the partner list suggests that search results eventually will include video clips.
Clearly, the new service is in its early phase. The catalog is spotty, licensing issues are thorny, and it doesn't yet differentiate between cover versions and songs with the same title. But it's a big step forward, and a boon to anyone who just wants to hear a song quickly, free of charge, without filling in registration forms or surrendering personal details - and presumably, when the dust settles, to recording artists and songwriters as well.
"Devices, Deals & Music" Panel
Musicians, forget about baring your soul. Jay Frank, senior VP of music strategy for Country Music Television, opened today's SF MusicTech conference by admonishing recording artists to adapt their music to new media - not to wait for new media to adapt to their music. At a lively panel discussion called "Deals, Devices, and Music," attendees at the Kabuki Hotel in San Francisco's Japantown learned just what that might mean.
Moderated by Dave Ulmer, Motorola's senior director of multimedia, the panel of four mobile-device execs explained how they aim to deliver compelling musical experiences on cell phones. One collects and distributes royalties on lyrics delivered online, another delivers music streams. But the action is clearly in games and social media. Tim O'Brien of Tapulous described his company's iPhone app, a game that lets players compete at tapping out rhythms while listening to their favorite songs. Roy Kosuge of Heatwave Interactive talked about Platinum Live, which simulates the life of an up-and-coming hiphop star. He's busy courting big-time artists who can attract and rally a community of players.
The audience for games is huge, Ulmer noted, especially casual games that are "part of breakfast, lunch, and dinner" because they don't require much attention to play. And these games become even more attractive in a social context, where people play with friends. Last Valentines Day, he pointed out, Facebook played the role of an online 1-800-FLOWERS by delivering 4 million virtual roses. The roses themselves didn't matter - they didn't exist, after all. It was all about giving and receiving social strokes.
In this regard, the Tapulous model looks especially ingenious. "We'll debut a new song - something the users have never heard - by alerting them that we'll play it in two minutes," O'Brien said. "So they're all chatting about it, wondering who has heard of it and what it sounds like. Then we run the song, and they play the game. Then they're back to chatting about it." The music is presented in a social context that strengthens the audience's impression from the first moment they hear it, and then reinforces that impression afterward.
All of which leaves Ulmer, at least, upbeat about an industry that appears to be caught in a death spiral. "You may hear that the music industry is crashing and burning," he said, "but music consumption is higher than ever. Standard pop radio is sucking, but Spotify is taking off. Music is doing quite well."
Moderated by Dave Ulmer, Motorola's senior director of multimedia, the panel of four mobile-device execs explained how they aim to deliver compelling musical experiences on cell phones. One collects and distributes royalties on lyrics delivered online, another delivers music streams. But the action is clearly in games and social media. Tim O'Brien of Tapulous described his company's iPhone app, a game that lets players compete at tapping out rhythms while listening to their favorite songs. Roy Kosuge of Heatwave Interactive talked about Platinum Live, which simulates the life of an up-and-coming hiphop star. He's busy courting big-time artists who can attract and rally a community of players.
The audience for games is huge, Ulmer noted, especially casual games that are "part of breakfast, lunch, and dinner" because they don't require much attention to play. And these games become even more attractive in a social context, where people play with friends. Last Valentines Day, he pointed out, Facebook played the role of an online 1-800-FLOWERS by delivering 4 million virtual roses. The roses themselves didn't matter - they didn't exist, after all. It was all about giving and receiving social strokes.
In this regard, the Tapulous model looks especially ingenious. "We'll debut a new song - something the users have never heard - by alerting them that we'll play it in two minutes," O'Brien said. "So they're all chatting about it, wondering who has heard of it and what it sounds like. Then we run the song, and they play the game. Then they're back to chatting about it." The music is presented in a social context that strengthens the audience's impression from the first moment they hear it, and then reinforces that impression afterward.
All of which leaves Ulmer, at least, upbeat about an industry that appears to be caught in a death spiral. "You may hear that the music industry is crashing and burning," he said, "but music consumption is higher than ever. Standard pop radio is sucking, but Spotify is taking off. Music is doing quite well."
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