Excellent New Yorker article about Spotify and how music sector business models are changing- very clear here that the online music market business models are morphing quickly- check out http://tinyurl.com/lw88lkc
The article reinforces my view that analytics, not content, packaging, or other features will be the primary success driver in most of today’s markets, including the music sector. I am looking at analytics-centric healthcare, financial, and business management ventures and clear to me these ventures will reshape current sectors and create new large scale opportunities just as Spotify is doing in online music
To fully understand the possibilities here, consider the following 3 points noted in the article:
- Note migration from early stage “collaborative filtering” analytics-using what you did before to define what you want in the future – first generation analytics here which provided a competitive edge.
- Spotify bought Echo Nest-an analytics company and created “Truffle Pig” – result is an artificial music intelligence platform that helps Spotify dissect in detail the music elements (they now look at 50 parameters for all music products) and further tighten ability to meet users’ needs
- Most significant, Spotify’s analytics are what I call second generation, seeking to use other external personal/ environmental data to improve their ability to meet users’ needs/improve user satisfaction (and of course not switch to iTunes or Pandora). To get a glimpse into what is meant here, check out the following from the article:
“Now that the Echo Nest is part of Spotify, its team has access to the enormous amount of data generated by Spotify users which show how they consume music. Spotify knows what time of day users listen to certain songs, and in many cases their location, so programmers can infer what they are probably doing—studying, exercising, driving to work. Brian Whitman, an Echo Nest co-founder, told me that programmers also hope to learn more about listeners by factoring in data such as “what the weather is like, what your relationship status is now on Facebook.”
When I look at how analytics is shaping all market sectors, we see explosive growth of what I call second generation analytics- this will spawn many exciting new ventures, and some of these will be in new market sectors that don’t even exist today. Exciting times lie ahead here
Paul B. Silverman writes about entrepreneurship, healthcare, analytics, and strategy management and serves as Advisor, Speaker, Educator, and Managing Partner of the Gemini Business Group, LLC, a new venture development firm, and author of “8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business.” He also serves as Adjunct Professor in the School of Business at George Mason University. See more at Paul B. Silverman Blog and sign up for Entrepreneurship Today! email updates to track latest new venture developments.
