Top iPad Music Apps (a/o May 23rd):
(Paid):
1. GarageBand
2. Animoog
3. TuneIn Radio Pro
4. "Free Music Download Pro" - Downloader & Player
5. djay
(Free):
1. iheartradio for iPad
2. Pandora Radio
3. Magic Piano
4. Spotify
5. VEVO HD
Caginalp points to 'phenomenal' revenues. A
recent Yankee Group report projected US app revenues to top $4.2
billion by 2013.
The plugs.
Lots
of plugging. Not the only one, though Chris Phenner is plugging
Thumbplay Music ad nauseum. Mobile-based, unlimiteed access to 8
million tracks, cloud-based access, stored access for playback on
subways, planes, etc., ability to purchase tracks, $10/mo.
Pete
Watson touts the Blackberry App World, a great way to get exposure,
pointing to Slacker and Thumbplay inclusions. (As a smaller app
platform compared to the iPhone and iPod touch, there is more
opportunity from something less crowded, less crammed.)
On that
point, Rondinelli notes that doing a Blackberry deal was 'infinitely
easier' than doing major label deal. But then again, licensing is a
very tricky business that involves lots of stakeholders. 'We will not
put something on our service that is not properly licensed, there's no
way,' Rondinelli notes.
Blackberry gives an 80/20 split to
developers, that's the 'book rate,' according to Watson. Plus,
Blackberry is an open platform for developers.
Rondinelli
also talks about being first to gain licenses to cache and store tracks
for offline playback.
Syd Schwartz talks about his partnership
with RjDj.
Custom-creating apps for
their native environments...
Phenner, If an app does
not take advantage of 'the native hooks of a platform', then the
developer definitely misses out.
Rondinelli, a Blackberry user
interacts with the Blackberry a lot differently than an iPhone user
interacts with an iPhone.
Apps take time and
resources to develop. How to popularize once the thing is launched?
Rondinelli,
'the app needs to sell itself,' there's 'no amount of marketing in the
world' that can make a dud app great. But numbers? Rondinelli says
'many millions' of apps downloaded for Slacker. 'At the end of the day,
it's someone trying the app and telling their friends about it'.
Schwartz,
pointed to Shazam, 'word of mouth propelled that app into the
stratosphere'. Otherwise, 'not sure that an artist-specific app has
been so cool that it breaks the artist,' at least 'it hasn't
happened yet.'
iPad?
Rondinelli
thinks the handheld - not the table - is the 'real game-changer,'
given its size and portability.
Schwartz, 'this is not an
either/or situation,' while also pointing to opportunities in
gaming. 'The notion of social gaming is coming out as a behavior that
consumers are going to engage in,' and furthermore, the larger surface
area allows two-player games, and other scenarios limited by the smaller
iPhone and iPod touch.
Rondinelli, 'we have to be everywhere,'
Phenner agrees. 'The ability to go across platforms and devices... is
an inescapable responsibility of the so-called web app developer'.
Top iPad Music Apps (a/o May 23rd):
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