 RAIN 4/19: Digital music space portrayed as highly challenging by RAIN Summit expert panelists PANEL: ROYALTIES, CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS MAKE PROGRESS TOUGHWhile panelists in the closing RAIN Summit West discussion — “The Future of Music” — portrayed the space as ripe with challenges, the panel was one of the most entertaining and thought-provoking of the day. Leading webcaster Ari Shohat of Digitally Imported joined Eric Johnson of Wolfgang’s Vault, Anu Kirk of subscription streaming service MOG and Michael Robertson of Mp3Tunes. Ted Cohen of TAG Strategic moderated the discussion.
The panelists painted a somewhat stark and challenging future for music services. Robertson asserted that high music royalties (the music industry “outfoxed” everyone in the room, he said) would keep music services like Pandora from ever being “major profit machines.” MOG’s Anu Kirk spoke on the challenges of subscription services, noting how difficult it is just to get people to pay $5 a month for music (especially compared to the hundreds they pay for cable). “Most people don’t really care about music that much,” he said. “A small amount of people pay a lot for music.”
However, Digitally Imported’s Air Shohat pointed out that the conversion rates for his serivce remain between 1-3%. The other panelists agreed — “you’re a genius” if you get 3% conversion, said Robertson. Wolfgang’s Vault’s Eric Johnson argued that the music industry will have to embrace new services, otherwise users will turn to illegal sources. Robertson remained skeptical though, arguing that the music industry is “chasing an era from the past” and trying to stop “an iceberg from melting in the desert.” Though this was the last panel of RAIN Summit West, we’re nowhere near finished with our coverage from the conference. Stay tuned for more in the days ahead! HANSON TO HOST SECOND DAY OF RADIO INK’S TECH SUMMIT RAIN publisher and AccuRadio CEO Kurt Hanson (pictured right) will host the second day of Radio Ink‘s Tech Summit. The Tech Summit will be held on May 17-18 at the Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View, CA. It immediately precedes Radio Ink‘s annual Convergence conference, which takes place May 18-19. Radio Ink has more information right here.
CHEVY 2013 MALIBU WILL INCLUDE PANDORA, STITCHER SUPPORTChevy’s 2013 Malibu will support GM’s new MyLink system, which streaming Internet radio content from Pandora and Stitcher to your dashboard via a connected mobile device.
Announced in September and already rolling-out to cars equipped with GM’s OnStar system, MyLink is the much like Ford’s Sync in that it offers voice-command control of Internet radio playback (RAIN coverage here). SIRIUS XM MINORITY CHANNELS DETAILEDSirius XM agreed as part of their merger in 2008 to devote 4% of their channels to outside companies.
It was announced yesterday that these channels will include two urban stations — created by Washington D.C.‘s Howard University and WHUT-TV — and three Spanish stations — two from Eventus-National Latino Broadcasting and one from WorldBand Media. KTV Radio will create a Korean music and talk channel while BYU from Salt Lake City will create a Mormon station. The Hill has more coverage here. share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
CommentCommenting is closed for this article.  Other stories RAIN has upgraded (and moved)! RAIN 9/13: RAIN Summit Chicago takes place today! RAIN 9/12: First Summit in RAIN's hometown takes place tomorrow RAIN 9/9: Summer holidays, "doldrums" impact July Webcast Metrics, but audience up over last year RAIN 9/8: Clear Channel launches new customizable iHeartRadio beta; RAIN goes hands-on RAIN 9/7: Meet more speakers you'll hear at RAIN Summit Chicago in less than a week RAIN 9/6: Clear Channel taps The Echo Nest to take on Pandora RAIN 9/2: RAIN reviews Spotify's radio-like product Artist Radio RAIN 9/1: UK online radio aggregator Radioplayer campaigns b'dcasters to create "all radio" ratings RAIN 8/31: Execs from Merlin, Triton Digital, jacAPPS and more to appear at RAIN Summit Chicago |
Robertson said he instead favors the “freemium” model, in which he offers a free product and an additional subscription service without limitations. 
