This week’s tech news & applications to the music industry.
June 19th — 25th (2016)
Coding is Over (thanks Lauren Mendoza)
Applications:
1. TREND ALERT: Coding is no longer “coding”. We’ve reached the point where coding something from the ground up would just be re-inventing most of the basic wheels.
2. THERE IS NO EXCUSE for not being able to rapidly develop applications to meet our clients’ needs. Most things are templates anyways.
3. All of us that are in the business of promoting artists should consider ourselves, at times, “Product Managers”. The applications that we can (should) rapidly develop are pieces of the product we manage. Don’t look at them as stand-alone “unicorns” or “billion dollar ideas” anymore. Look at them as tools that serve the greater purpose: breaking your client.
Facebook Live grows up with two-person broadcasts and waiting rooms for viewers (thanks Fitz Tepper)
Applications:
1. All of these improvements lend themselves to making it easier for artists to do live broadcasts in a low-pressure and fun way. If your client is giving you flack about “no one showing up” or “not knowing what to say, the “Waiting Room” and “MSQRD” features solve those problems.
Instagram will start recommending video channels for you to watch (thanks Jake Kastrenakes)
Applications:
1. TREND ALERT: See what’s going on here? All the major platforms are investing in video. Your clients should be primarily using video for the promotions. The platforms (especially if running paid ads) will reward you.
BitTorrent Now is an open, ad-supported music and video platform (thanks Nathan Ingraham)
Applications:
1. TREND ALERT: Everyone is getting into streaming…
2. Peer-to-peer (building a community) is the way of the Internet. While we’re used to the basic “access a platform owned by a business, get a result from that platform based on what the business wants to give us” model, peer-to-peer essentially says that the community can give whatever it wants to the community.
- Keep an eye on peer-to-peer streaming. Could be really disruptive if a major platform (ahem Spotify) decides to move away from cultivating community on it’s platform.
Twitter pays up to $150M for Magic Pony Technology, which uses neural networks to improve images (thanks Ingrid Lunden)
Application:
1. Once again, an indicator of the importance of video across all the major social platforms.
Can Netflix Survive In The New World It Created? (thanks Joe Nocera from the NYT)*Article from June 15th. Found it this week and thought it relevant*
Applications:
1. Publishers, pay attention. There is massive demand, by platforms like Netflix, for the next big original series. I would begin thinking about how to package in soundtracks and favorable licensing rates with raw scripts to help these deals move quicker.
Just a principle: We in music should be using our assets to help other sectors of entertainment keep up, economically, with tech trends. If we see that there is a market for original series’, let’s approach new, talented screenwriters and give them access to our assets.
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