Next Big Sound (a/o May 24th):
It's hard to get people to pay for streaming subscriptions, so why make them? People hate interrupting ads, so why serve them?
If you already hate where this article is going, consider this: not one streaming music service has a model that has produced long-term, sustainable profitability, much less a template for the industry to follow. Which brings us to Radical.FM, a Swedish streaming startup that is daringly rolling the dice on a donation-based play.
The big idea is mostly happening inside of Sweden for now, where Radical is now offering 20 million tracks, including those licensed by the major labels. But Radical wants to go way past Spotify: the app includes personal, realtime DJ streaming ('RadCasting'), with a 'TALK' feature that allows users to directly emcee alongside their streaming stations.
If that sounds cool, then you're starting to see the Radical.FM strategy. Instead of a library of songs and apps, Radical wants to create a cult-like following, one that will routinely donate to support the cause and social glue.
That said, this is very early stage, and prety rough around the edges. This is a freshly-launched beta, with the rest of the world getting non-major, indie, or otherwise easier-to-license stuff. Which makes sense: Sweden is arguably one of the friendliest climates for streaming, and the perfect testbed for something unusual. The rest of the world isn't as nice, and typically, big labels aren't sympathetic to early-stage experiments -- and the budgets that go with them.
hippydog Wednesday, November 21, 2012
"with a 'TALK' feature that allows users to directly emcee alongside their streaming stations"
I would rather have the ads thank you LOL
My prediction.. this will go no where.. ..
Joda Thursday, November 22, 2012
Maybe it will be popular amongst the London pirate DJs & Jamaican stations.
"We be playing maaaassive choons bredren. Reeewiiind! (insert gun shots here... then backspinning record sound"
LolaGrace Thursday, November 22, 2012
It seems the venture capital industry is still in denial and hence still funding startups like Deezer.
The media is slowly catching on to the fact that the biggest player in music has become none other than YouTube. They have multiple advantages in this arena.
Advantage 1. Unlike Pandora et al they are governed by the DMCA rules and thus are not subject to the types of draconian royalties Pandora has been fighting as, "outdated for the modern music-scape".
Advantage 2. They have been accepted by both the big players like Sony, BMG, etc. and have set up revenue sharing via embedded banner ads.
Advantage 3. Video. MP3s are essentially an auditory experience which ignores the multimedia age we live in.
Advantage 4. New artists and user created mashes. We live in the era of web 2.0 aka the social web. There are far more versions of songs, performances, etc. in the YouTube catalog than you will ever find on services like rhapsody or pandora.
And the last but not least advantage. INNOVATION via the YouTube API. For example, fuhshniZZle recently launched an all in one music solution based directly on the YouTube API. The benefits in this case are staggering. Unlike YouTube itself the videos served by YouTube via its API do not have commercial interruptions but instead rely upon in video/embedded banners. In the case of fuhshniZZle they have added identical features found in Pandora, Rhapsody and Playlist and all content is shareable on social media without restrictions.
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