Are Cloud Music Services the Same Old Song & Dance?
Now that cloud music is here to stay and we can choose from a plethora of new services, listen to a bazillion songs, any time from any device - what’s the catch? If you read the fine print, most services offer sweet deals for the Web, but are still charging the same $9.99/month for mobile listening. Isn’t “mobile” the point of the cloud? Is the industry making progress to win over the market, or are we still moving in the wrong direction? Are the artists making anything from these services? A nitty-gritty look at models and subscriber numbers to determine whether the deal has been sweetened enough to lure the majority of the market that’s still stealing music.
Presenters
Mike McGuire is a research vice president for Gartner, Inc.’s Media Industry Advisory Services team. Mr. McGuire covers the online content business focusing on how music, movie and TV/video are extending their distribution strategies to the Internet. He has a particular interest in understanding the value of social media and social networks on existing media companies. He also looks after Gartner’s coverage of legal and regulatory issues that effect media companies. Topics include licensing issues, content-protection/DRM issues and changing patterns of media consumption among consumers.
I'm a journalist; I report on technology & business. Currently, I write for VentureBeat; previously, I reported for Mashable and ReadWriteWeb.
At SXSW 2012, I will be conducting a series of interviews with top-tier entrepreneurs, developers, and others in the technology community. I will be doing two panels, one at Interactive and one at Music.
If you have questions or need to get in touch, I'm jolie@venturebeat.com.
Please note: I will not be making any public appearances other than the above listed, nor will I be attending any public parties.
Jackson Gates is responsible for new strategic partnerships at Pandora and the company’s corporate development efforts. Since joining in 2008, he has developed and managed relationships for Pandora with automotive manufacturers, consumer electronic companies and content providers. Prior to Pandora, Jackson was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Venrock and a venture capital investor with Vulcan Capital and Tenaya Capital. He received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University.
Kevin Wortis, a 20-year music industry veteran, worked for years as a booking agent, artist manager and label head before co-founding and running the pioneering label services company World's Fair. There he signed and authored marketing campaigns for such notable clients as Rough Trade, Daptone, Play It Again Sam, Fabric, Dandy Warhols, Lady Sovereign, J Dilla and Secret Machines.
More recently he served as President of Rock Steady, where he worked with emerging artists like Best Coast while supporting an array of national and international artists and labels like Dim Mak, Nat Geo Music, Nylon and PIAS.
Over his career, Kevin Wortis has worked with a wide range of artists, including Flaming Lips, Sharon Jones, Sigur Ros, Devendra Banhart, Aphex Twin, El-P, Swans, Neurosis and many others.
Since March of 2011 when Wortis brought his Label Services model and clients to Girlie Action, he has led on the marketing, promotions and sales campaigns for such artists as Agnes Obel, Joan As Police Women, Morcheeba, UNKLE, Grace Jones, Marianne Faithful, Asa, David Lynch, Meshell Ndegeocello, The Cure and The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, among others.
Daren Tsui is the CEO and co-founder of mSpot, Inc. Tsui founded the company in 2004 with the goal of transforming mobile phones into a medium for rich mobile content that the masses will embrace. Tsui led mSpot's charge to be the first mobile music service in North America to stream a "full format" radio service including news, sports, finance, talk and music channels as well as the first to stream full-length feature films to mobile phones. Today with more than 6 million paying subscribers, mSpot has launched services ranging from radio, music and movies to sports. A veteran of four start-ups, Daren was most recently president and co-founder of SkyGo, a global mobile marketing technology company providing integrated brand and direct marketing services sold to Enpocket in 2003.
Wednesday, March 14
