Will Facebook respond to Google’s Oct 28 Music announcement?

I saw on Techcrunch that Google will launch a music service on October 28th that combines some services from Lala and iLike  (no details yet …).

Screenshots

Some suggested listening on Lala while you read on.

I’ve previously posted an article on Lala titled ‘10 cents a song is pretty tempting‘ . Now if Google turns that into billions of songs, this adds up to real money.  So while no details are available yet, if I were to guess, I like Lala’s player and 10 cents per song online price for purchasing rights to internet plays.  I like iLikes ticketing/concert information. All they need now is a great recommendation engine like Last.fm or Pandora (I slightly prefer Last.fm), but then Google likely has the talent in house to develop a great recommendation engine. The hard part of starting from scratch would be doing the licensing deals. Lala and iLike have that.

So will Facebook respond ? I would be very surprised if Facebook does not announce something (at least an intention) either prior to or within a week of Google’s October 28 roll out. There were rumors just a few weeks ago that Mark Zuckerberg likes Spotify . I was unable to check that music service out as it is not available in the US … probably licensing … the hard part.

If both Google and Facebook partner up with just a few of the multitude of music players out there, there will likely be some other music services that just end up fading away.  One thing is certain. Most people are pretty attached to their music. An awesome music service coupled with broad music licensing can make for some very loyal customers, perhaps even loyal enough to follow their preference with a compatible phone service.

Google Wave Amazon MP3 Bot

The features that make Google Wave most interesting as a social platform are Widgets and Robots  (bots).  The Google Wave Amazon MP3 Bot is a great example of a recently developed robot application.

What is a Wave Robot ?  A robot is an application that is invited to participate in the wave just like you would invite a person. Once added to the wave as a participant, the robot performs a particular automated task. In the case of this robot application, the Amazon MP3 Bot, auto detects the artist name that one of the other participants types in and automatically converts identifiable artists, songs and albums into Amazon MP3 product links.

Rather than embed the excellent video demos here in my blog post, I would invite you to go to the Google Wave Amazon MP3 Bot micro-site blog. Not only is there a great Vimeo  demo of the bot in action, but the author also shows how to install a robot.  As many of you do not have a wave developer account yet and can’t try it out, you will definitely want to check this site out to get a taste of how Google Wave works.

Google Wave Amazon MP3 Bot

view all Google Wave related posts

Playlist Power Myspace app has been decommissioned

The Playlist Power app has been decommissioned.

Bemmu, our programming ace who lead the software development effort has ported his revenue generating apps to AppEngine and has terminated his hosting service that hosted the Playlist Power application.

Thank you to all who tried and used our Playlist Power MySpace application.  We had over 3200 downloads as of this summer. We hope you enjoyed using it.

Adobe previews Augmented Reality Music Video at Adobe Max

Music content delivery is taking an evolutionary step using Adobe Flash. Adobe invited John Mayer out on the stage today to preview and talk about an augmented reality music video track in the works at the Tuesday Oct 6th Adobe Max Keynote event. John is working with Blitz and Adobe in what appears to be a mashup of the music video with virtual reality gaming environment construction techniques. Not being entirely sure of how the augmented reality music video is created, I would guess that John Mayer is filmed in front of a green screen and that the virtual reality environment is also delivered in Flash.

Ok , searching Blitz’s website, they do have a blog post titled “Augmented Reality Sings a New Tune” , so I’ll comment more on where I possibly see this going in the future.

Where might this technology lead us?

1. Guest music performances embedded in games?
2. Games that know your musical preferences?
3. Virtual reality music players emulating the concert venue?
4. Brand-sponsored Augmented Reality Music Videos?

This could get interesting for the music and game industries and for consumers.

1. Guest music performances embedded in games?

Imagine playing your favorite virtual reality game and walking or driving by a night club in your game and hearing a song by one of your favorite artists. Maybe you’d be tempted to drop in and have a listen? This type of thing could be coming soon to a game near you. Or how about the reverse scenario. You may see a go see a live performance and have the graphics from the game showing on the big screen monitors. Buy the game at the concession stand while you are there. Mashups of music and game industry content certainly will offer up some interesting co-marketing opportunities.

2. Games that know your musical preferences?

Why would the above scenario ever need to present you with a music entertainment that is not your taste? Depending on the player and their favorite music preferences (as pulled in from your favorite Social Media site music player), the musical act in the virtual reality club you just happen by could be served up to your particular taste. Perhaps in order to play the game, you had to sign in with your Facebook, twitter, or google ID ?

3. Virtual reality music players emulating the concert venue ?

Imagine seeing your favorite band perform up close in an intimate club (even if they typically play large amphitheaters). Might you not be tempted wander over to the virtual concession stand and buy music, t-shirts, video games, concert tickets, and other items geared to a true fan.

Oh, and why not choose your club venue ? Just as virtual reality golf games allow you to play golf on many world famous courses, why wouldn’t we be able to choose to see the band in a venue of our choice?

4. Brand-sponsored Augmented Reality Music Videos ?

Augmented Reality Music Videos using this technology could be expensive to produce. Subtle brand placement could be placed in the music video you are watching. You’ve seen it in movies and on TV for years. It need not be ‘in your face’ advertising, although I’m sure there will be some of that as well (buy the track on iTunes, order the CD on Amazon).  One could potentially change the branded items placed in the video to match your user demographic. Oh, did I mention that perhaps in order to play the augmented reality music video, you had to sign in with your Facebook, twitter, or google ID ?