I’ve moved hosts overnight (19-May-2007). Whilst I’ve put as many redirects in as I can, you might see some unexpected results, particularly if you’re using an RSS reader that doesn’t understand HTTP 301 (permanently moved) messages. It might be worth removing your existing RSS of this blog and re-adding it using the http://feeds.feedburner.com/nickpiggott URL.
Paul Brown presented what he was very consistent in referring to as “Pandora Radio”, but to a slighty more
empty theatre than I expected (Rod from Channel 4 packed it out on 4oD. TV sexier than radio?).
Pandora – It’s about discovery of music. Feeding back your thoughts through Thumbs up/thumb down – You never know what you’re going to get. It’s a Musical journey.
(Similar to how mi-XFM is described).
Apparently an average user creates 25 stations.
Paul made heavy emphasis on “Discovery through radio”; “Unparalled music discovery.”. Does that keep the record industry happy?
‘Backstage’ coverage of artists (Licensed from AMG Music Guide) has been popular, and now there is Pandora station sharing / user profiles. Click to other people listening to this kind of music.
The Music Genome Project identified 400 genes in music. Not genre orientated.
They employ 48 human analysts – coding guys;. 20 mins analysis of each song. 500,000 songs, 15,000 songs a month. (Compare that to what we do in the radio industry).
Music genome project seems almost separate – is this the ultimate meta tagging for music?
An ambition to be a Multi-platform Pandora – usual list of platforms.
Pandora users meeting – 50-200 users on Tour/on the road, face to face meetings. How much time do radio stations spend with listeners engaging over music.
Growth: 6.141m reg listeners to Mar 07. Very linear growth,
How’s it funded: “It’s a free service, it’s advertising supported, it’s radio.”
Business Model in more detail:
* 1 to 1 context sensitive ads (not audio) ( Usual blue chip advertisers / Nike customised radio).
* Non-intrusive
* Subscription product
* E-commerce
Other issues:
Licensing is a problem.
Pandora mobile has a cost.
Classical music is coming (Classic fm ?).
Consumer electronics partnerships
Evolution of the Radio Experience
Brief blogging from the Google sessions at Internet World.
According to the UK MD of Google:
* Internet accounts for 27% of media consumption. Radio is 25% – hmmm.
* 40% of UK users have a search engine as their homepage.
* Consumers are the new brand managers.
* If you are going to play in the world of user genarated contert, for heaven’s sake have a sense of humour….
* Sony Bravia advert spoof (on YouTube obviously) was fun, and strangely Bristolian.
* US Pontiac TV advert which ended telling people to “put Pontiac into Google”, not their own web address (google screengrab including).
Other notable sessions have been:
Amazon Web Services – EC2 and S3. I was already signed up but now I’m really really fired up about it. This is rapid design, develop and deploy in action.
O2 – seriously determined to put music at ‘front and centre of the O2 brand’ and their sponsorship of The Dome is a big big commitment.
More later.