Live coverage from Digital Music Forum West in Los Angeles (Roosevelt Hotel) continues.
What is music in the cloud?
Galuten: it's a misnomer, irrelevant. consumer shouldn't know or care the source, it should be irrelevant. should be seamless and easy.
... not where the music is hosted, but where the rights are hosted. "where the rights live..." The rights should live in a very fluid way...
Phenner: discussed DMF discussed essay in on "My So-Called Record Collection..."
Robertson: everything is going to live in the cloud... it will be a given in the future - like a banking conference talking about 'money in the bank'... it will be automatically assumed...
Galuten: music is just part of it - information, related blogs, UG content, "music is just a pointer to the data that includes any number of things..."
Denbo: previously, devices that could access the cloud model was limited. people have had terrible devices... and suddenly things can move to the cloud with lots of excellent data, preferences, personalization, etc.
Galuten: envisions a future where music can be consumed across a number of different devices, interconnected, totally "showing up wherever you are..."
Phenner: at the highest level, yes - he votes for subscription models, though lots of variables at play to get consumers to that point.
Robertson: obstacles to sub.: (1) price too high ($10 too high); then (2) subs are "dripping with DRM"...
1+2 = why sub. business is irrelevant, 1-2mm subs, not growing.
Lots of variations in the space: some just focused on storage, others entire millions of songs, range of concepts. But still needs pricing and DRM to come down.
[friendly debate between Robertson + Galuten over DRM, SDMI, mp3.com, etc.]
Galuten: points to lots of current-day uses of DRM: email, DVDs...
Phenner: discusses challenges presented by connectivity, app issues, all sort of variables that get a quick test in a 3-day test. Phenner himself caches considerable amts of content...
notes that Thumbplay is not "pulling a Spotify" by offering everything for free...
Robertson: [to Phenner] $10/mo - a price point that will work?
Phenner: conversion rates of "dual-users" - ie, those who download different app types - double digit conversion rates
Robertson: With all due respect, you are not seeing double-digit increases, the entire userbase matters... if you did "you would have a very big company"
Phenner: there are certain segments and use cases where those increases are happening
Galuten: potentially at an inflection point, traditionally the services have been "bad"
for most, $10.mo is disposable income, esp those who used to by lots of CDs
$10.mo works for seriously ubiquitous situations
Sheridan: we're not fulfilling the experience that's needed. make is easy, fun, addictive - once those are nailed, $10 / mo will work...
Why did Pandora take so much time to grow? Lack of a big budget...
Denbo: once you are tacking onto an existing mobile bill, the upsell potential changes. "that's going to help change things alot..."
Caginalp: huge consumer hazards related to companies dying, and collections dying in the process?
And, issues related to uploading music into a cloud that then goes out of business?
Robertson: your music is not going to go away, with any reputable service, "it's just not a factor"
disagreement over $10/mo - better to do $3/mo and get 20mm paying that, or whatever it's built into.
Denbo: cites different tiers of Deezer+Orange in France
Audience Question: how can consumers keep 'ownership' of music without all of these hazards?
Galuten: then buy the music you want to own...
Audience member: and what services allows you to own music in a rental model?
Robertson: go to iTunes and buy it... "if you want an insurance policy, make sure you can get your service out..."
Audience question (from 7digital): attempting to bridge the gap between the cloud and ownership...
Galuten: I think the concept of ownership is a fading concept... cites Comes With Muic
Robertson: But why is Comes With Music such a dog?
Galuten: only on Nokia phones, and mostly low-end phones that don't support this...
Audience Question: talk about software that is "good" related to recommendation...
Phenner: EchoNest - both shared by MOG, Thumbplay - but both companies then have to translate that into a consumer-facing concept...
Denbo: discusses the MOG Slider - it is the most-used feature in the service (allows people to control the amount that an artist influences a particular station...)
Galuten: Recommendation algorithms are 'not always surprising' like a friend...
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