Tag: Spotify

The Future Of Music Videos

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The issue about music videos is they only really had the cultural relevance we imagine they had for a few years in the early 80s. A series of cultural and technological factors caused music videos to have a huge impact on the impressionable minds of young GenXers.

And here we are, with MTV not showing any music videos and you have to really search for such videos.

It is possible that there might be a bit of an uptick in the cultural relevance of such music videos between now and when everything is taken over by AI. There are two possible outlets for this to happen — Tik-Tok and Spotify.

Making music videos organic to either platform, would, in a sense replicate the passive nature of MTV music discovery from back in the day. In a sense. Both platforms have the reach necessary — and connection to youth culture — to give the youngins a sense of what it was like to passively discover new music via MTV back in the day.

But it definitely seems like it’s a narrow window of opportunity — AI is coming.

Should NetFlix & Spotify Merge?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I love me some Spotify and I keep trying to think of ways to make sure it thrives. And one scenario would be that it merge with Netflix. Apparently, Spotify has a real problem with Apple mooching off it because of a 30% VAT it imposes on any online transaction via its devices.

Or something like that.

Anyway, the point is — I could see a lot of synergies if NetFlix and Spotify became one user interface. It would be an all-encompassing user steaming media experience.

Though, I will note that one interesting addition to this combination would be Siris XM. I would definitely like access to Howard Stern via my Spotify account. That would be pretty cool.

It Seems To Make A Lot Sense For Spotify To Merge With Siris XM

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have no idea about anything, but just from my own power-user use of Spotify, it seems if, barring any technological obstacles, that it would be great if Spotify had access to all the live content of Siris XM. I would be willing to pay $20 a month if I could have no just all the world’s music to choose from, but all the radio-like stations of Siris XM to stream via Spotify.

I would definitely listen to Howard Stern every day if I could live stream his show via Spotify — and have an archived copies of it to choose from as well. But, lulz, maybe there’s something I’m missing, something that makes that dream impractical.

I say this because it seems as though there is definitely an untapped market for some sort of fusion of podcasts and the typical early morning chat you might find from someone like Stern. I will note that there are A LOT of Stern fans who totally miss what makes him so great.

It’s not the fuck whack pack, it’s his insightful interviewing. He’s probably one of the best interviewers in mass media at the moment.

Anyway, no one listens to me.

Of AI & Spotify

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I had a conversation with a relative that left me feeling like an idiot. What I was TRYING to say is there was an unexploited space for Spotify to use AI. In the scenario I had in my mind, you would type in a concept or keyword into a playlist and AI would generate a list a longs from that.

I was a bit inarticulate about the concept I was proposing and I came across sounding like an idiot. While I may be an idiot, I continue to think about how I could have put a bit finer point on what I was trying to say.

I don’t think that all of Spotify’s playlists are done manually, I do think that there is a place for harder AI to be used for streaming services. Spotify knows me really well and if you hooked that knowledge up to a harder form of AI I think some pretty interesting things could come about not just with keywords but with discovery.

Anyway. I’m a nobody. Ignore me.

Logically, Apple Would Buy Spotify & Netflix

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Apple has a huge amount of money tucked away. In fact, I think it’s about as much money as the U.S. Federal government has on hand at any particular moment.

As such, logically, Apple would make some big corporate purchases with all that cash. To me, the logical acquisitions would be Netflix and Spotify. At the moment, Netflix is trading at a historic low and Apple buying it would be a great way for them to build on the success of Apple+. Right now, Apple+ is little more than a very successful vanity project and buying Netflix would give the company a huge foothold in the entertainment business.

Meanwhile, buying Spotify would be a nice fit with Apple’s existing Beats and iTunes services. It would be quite beneficial to Apple’s bottom line to fuse iTunes with Spotify’s huge audience.

What’s more, if you really wanted to get all Steve Jobs about it — that is, if Tim Cook had any vision — they would make one uber streaming service that combined Netflix, Spotify, iTunes and Beats into one tidy one-stop-shop for all of our entertainment needs.

It would be pretty cool if this new service not only allowed you to stream music, but the videos to go with that music as well. It would be a direct competitor to YouTube with a far better UX / UI.

There probably would be a huge obstacle — that of the anti-trust issue. But Apple probably could figure out a way to get what they wanted.

But, sadly, no one listens to me. Oh well.

Why Music Streaming Is Probably A Net Positive For The Music Industry — & Artists

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m not an expert, but just some back of the envelope thinking about things like Spotify leads me to believe that in the end the music industry is bound to make a whole lot more money of streaming than off of any physical medium.

The reason is, if someone owns music, they buy it once and can listen to it as much as they like for “free” afterwards. Meanwhile, with streaming, it’s kind of a win-win for everyone involved. For a reasonable monthly fee, consumers can listen to millions of songs at whim. Meanwhile, every time a song is played — for whatever reason — the artists involved gets SOME money, however small.

So, there are two major times when this element of music sociology gets involved. One is, the back catalogue of music that might not be as popular anymore and, as such, might be hard to find. Places like Peaches or Tower Records — however big they may have been — had finite physical retail space and, as such, they had to make some subtle editorial decisions.

So, as an Old, if I went to some modern day Tower Records, there’s a good chance I wouldn’t be able to find some obscure 90s band simply because it was 30 years ago and the market to house the CD / vinyl isn’t there anymore. But with Spotify, et al, if I want to listen to a very specific 90s song out of the blue, that’s money that that artist would otherwise not get.

The other main way artists MUST be making more money is through replays. I listen to some songs over and over and over and over again and that’s money that the artist wouldn’t get using the traditional Point of Sale type distribution of a physical product — once that physical music medium is bought, that’s all the money that artist should expect to get.

I’m not saying streaming music is perfect or that it isn’t causing problems. It’s not perfect and it’s causing problems. But I think, over time, artists — especially older mid-tear artists –may realize they’re actually making more money than they might otherwise.

I think.