Page 82 - Computer Power User - February 2017

: You’ve mentioned the idea a device in your pocket at all times or you artists for expanding fan bases. Has the
Q of people regarding music as might have a car that can connect to these playlist taken on increased importance?
a “utility.” You’ve also written about services, but there’s just something about
the impact that smart home digital having it in your home. This is something : For sure. As these platforms
assistants/speakers could have on music that Sonos has kind of been angling at for JT have grown and they’ve each put
streaming. Will devices like the Amazon quite some time. And it has responded more and more emphasis on curation
Echo lead more people to view music as to the popularity of the Echo, as well, by and building playlists, you end up with
a monthly utility they’re willing to pay? kind of, like everyone else, working to a situation where you have millions of
add Alexa voice control into its speakers. people listening to some of these playlists.
: I haven’t seen data on this, but These things are taking off, it seems In a lot of ways, it’s kind of like the new
JT you have to imagine that with the pretty quickly, and I can imagine that if radio in a sense. I mean radio is still radio,
pretty substantial success of the Echo and we reach a point where it’s a mainstream but this is a lot easier to penetrate. If
other Alexa-enabled products—then the thing to have this smart connected you’re an artist at almost any level, if
your music is on the service and comes
across the radar of the person building
the playlist or the algorithm building the
It might not have the same playlist with something like Discover
Weekly [on Spotify], then all of a sudden
impact as getting your song you can find yourself alongside much
more recognizable names and getting a
really substantial boost in exposure.
on a Top 40 radio station, but I’ve talked to artists who have come
out with a new album and a song lands
it will get your music in the ears on some genre-appropriate playlist or
mood-appropriate playlist even—there are
so many ways to divvy these things up—
of roughly the right people, but they see enormous activity suddenly

around their catalog. So it’s become a
depending on the playlist. major force. It’s now like pitching the
playlist at Spotify has almost become like
the new version of sending your demo
tape into the radio station. It’s just that in
this case, it’s much more likely to get on
rush among the competitors to launch speaker in one or multiple rooms of one of these playlists.
often quite similar-looking products like your house for people who may not have I remember talking to Troy Carter at
Google Home, and then there are rumors considered it before, it makes a lot more Spotify about this. The odds of landing
that Apple is working on one—this whole sense to pay a monthly fee for music. It’s on one of these playlists is much greater
idea of this AI-fueled, personal-assistant, interesting, there was a book that came because there are so many of them, and
smart speaker is a category that I don’t out like 13 years ago called “The Future they’re divided up in so many ways, by
think most of us really imagined as existing Of Music.” They called it a “manifesto genre, by era, by mood, by all kinds
or even really wanting a couple of years for a digital music revolution.” That was of things, or, again, by algorithm, by
ago. But it’s here, and it seems to be huge. back in 2005, sort of before you even had collaborative filtering, by people who like
I think if you look at the success of the iPhone or Spotify or anything. They similar things and this logic, it makes
those things—Amazon isn’t totally open talked about the concept of music like sense it’s more accessible than radio.
about its numbers—that they’re doing water, or basically a utility you paid for. It might not have the same impact as
well. Once you have a device in your At the time, it sounded sort of like science getting your song on a Top 40 radio
home that enables you to very, very fiction, but that’s exactly where things station, but it will get your music in
seamlessly, without a screen and without seem to be headed. the ears of roughly the right people,
even that much thought, to start piping depending on the playlist. It obviously has
music into a room, the whole idea of : Another interesting trend is that the attention of the labels and the artists.
music as a utility starts to make a lot Q playlists are becoming increasingly I think they’re seeing now that if they
more sense. I mean it makes a certain important to consumers for discovering land on one of these playlists, it really
amount of sense, too, that when you have music and to the music labels and does pay off. ■

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