This week we look at the executive’s opinion focusing on streaming services views on Cloud Music services al-la Amazon, Google and Apple and what their impact will be on streaming music services.
Steve Purdham, CEO We7.com
“Cloud Based streaming is clearly the future of music listening/watching and the great news is that this will increase the overall consumption of music because its easy and convenient on both on-line and mobile devices. The digital locker services such as that from Amazon (and eventually Apple) will be prove to be temporary steps to full cloud based subscriptions services which will then be dominated by Apple with Amazon in second place by a long way. But these subscription services will only reach the top 5-10% of music listeners at best, dominated by males over 34, with the ad supported world reaching the vast majority of the mass market basically emulating the traditional music world of cd purchasers vs radio listeners. Both economic structures should be encourage and we7, Apple and Amazons initiatives should be embraced and expanded as it is my belief that this will expand music adoption for the benefit of the total music industry long term.”
Jon Erwin, President- Rhapsody
“Cloud-based lockers offer a completely different value proposition than on-demand services like Rhapsody. That said, we believe that efforts by Amazon, Google and Apple that condition music consumers to go to the cloud to access their collections further amplify awareness and acceptance of on-demand music. We believe that these new services will help get more and more people to understand the tremendous value of having total access to their music using the Rhapsody service, which brings your music to you wherever and however you want to enjoy it, while experiencing the joy of music discovery that Rhapsody enables. Unlike these companies, we’re not just selling downloads and a locker to store them in, we are selling a musical journey that does not require paying a toll of .99 to $1.29 for each stop along the way.”
David Hyman, CEO – MOG
“Cloud based locker services are a stepping-stone for folks looking to get into the cloud music space; it’s a relatively easy thing to build that doesn’t have long development cycles to bring to market. The appeal is somewhat limited given lockers require people to upload what they already own to the cloud in order to then stream it back to themselves, and this does not come without restrictions. Most music lovers have their collections fitting on local storage devices like iPods or mobile phones, so the need isn’t really there for many. However, it’s great to see the market heading in the right direction. MOG is confident that what consumers ultimately want is an all-you- can-eat, on demand music service that offers unlimited listening from essentially everywhere – online, on mobile devices, in the living room and in the car.”
