Spotify, REM and the music market Collapsing into Now

First, in reference to our presentation earlier this semester on Spotify:  Europe gets the "listening" party as a real "social" event on the web. The US gets...NPR. (Which is NOT being zapped by cost cutting GOP since it only gets 1.5% of it's funding from taxpayers)  Either way it's not a stirring endorsement of public / government support for the arts or the lack of success in a shrinking market.  Perhaps REM's title to the new album is more appropriate than we now know.

Second, Internet start ups face competition from the very low-barriers to entry that make starting a web-business very cheaply.  Specifically for companies like MusicJuice.net or Taxi Magic - the technology is not novel and in many cases can be easily replicated.  Though Taxi Magic does have competitive advantage of integrating to the 4 major taxi dispatch software systems - it had the backing of $100M founder to fund those operations for over a year.  Incentive alignment also seems amiss for MusicJuice.net - the value proposition they pose is more beneficial to the artist rather than the listener.  Artists won't share their revenue of disc sales or concert revenue sold "outside" MusicJuice's purview.  The case wasn't clear on how this would be tracked or enforced. It took Taxi Magic some time to realize they should charge cab drivers, not riders, to better align value / incentives.

I'd close MusicJuice.net right now and look to build an options/future trading site on what bands will be in the Top 10 Albums, etc on Billboard magazine sales.  That's something interactive and "fun" for music lovers to bet on the future of their favorite known bands.  With only $5k remaining and such low site traffic it's doubtful even a sale could generate much cash.  Another option would be to partner as an add-on service to companies like BigChampagne (a B2B data/information service for music industry)

Finally, I will chime in about "crowd-sourcing" music (or different structures of artists development) with a note I wrote a few years ago before attending a U2 show.  I'll save that for a diff post.