 RAIN 10/2: Labels must focus on consumers instead of their own agendas, says Forrester report ·Oct 2, 11:36 AM REPORT: CONSUMERS HAVE A RIGHT TO INTERACTIVITY, SHARINGA new report from Forrester Research insists the music industry, in order to save itself, reorient its focus on consumer desires. The report — titled, “Music Product Manifesto: The Product Features That Will Save Recorded Music” (here) — argues that consumers have the right to a compelling user experience and the right to share content. Rather than focusing on making its own business models work, Forester says, the music industry should build its models around what consumers actually want. The report outlines a plan for interactive features that are modeled after mobile apps — in other words, they should be cross-platform, suitable for PCs and mobile devices. Forrester even goes so far as to provide a mock-up of its ideal music player design (below).
“Much of [the report’s] idealized music product already exists, albeit in scatter-shot fashion,” observes Wired’s Eliot Van Buskirk (here). “[It’s] dead right about current music products falling way short of offering all of this stuff in one package…and that more cooperation between labels and device manufacturers is the only way to make that happen.” Ars Technica points out (here) that “it’s easy to dismiss these suggestions as pie-in-the-sky fantasies,” but there is a concept which already comes close to realizing the report’s ideas: the iTunes “cocktail” LP (RAIN coverage here). However, “it’s still very limited in terms of customizability.” That said, it does offer more than a usual album and “if artists see some success there, the music industry may indeed be open to taking more steps to offer content in ways that users can customize and share with friends.” Looking at the concept player, Music|Media|Design wonders (here), “how many ‘bands’ can any ‘consumer’ really support? Because that’s where this leads…Can it really sustain a full-time always-on connection to an artist or some artist’s fan? Do we want to? If so, how much is that really worth? …By no means is it an ideal: it’s really a mash-up of what exists, and kind of works, not what works best.” WOR-AM/NY LAUNCHES ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKBuckley’s WOR-AM in New York has launched “The Na710n,” an online social community for listeners to interact instantly with each other and on-air talent. It’s online and open for listeners now here. Radio Ink has more coverage here.
VERIZON DROPS TOUCHSCREEN, RADIO STREAMING HOME PHONE “HUB”Verizon has pulled its touchscreen, Net-connected home phone device Hub off of shelves. The Hub was introduced in February, complete with widgets for weather, calendars and even streaming Internet radio (RAIN coverage here). Yahoo! Tech speculates (here) that the device was dropped because of poor sales.977MUSIC.COM TO TWITTER, BLOG LIVE FROM AUSTIN CITY LIMITSWeb streaming site 977music.com will be live at Austin City Limits this year, starting today and running through October 4. The station will be posting sound bytes, video clips, blogging and updating fans through Twitter from the festival. Austin City Limits features Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band and Kings of Leon among 125 total artists performing. Find out more from 977music.com’s press release 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 |
