Fred Jacobs: Your Competitor Has Changed Formats And Is Targeting You

Fred Jacobs

JACOBS MEDIA Pres. FRED JACOBS addresses how PANDORA must feel with GOOGLE's recent roll out of "GOOGLE Play Music All Access." He writes, "We’ve all been there. You wake up one day -- or 5 o’clock rolls around -- and it turns out that one of your competitors has changed formats. And now they’re coming right at you."

His jacoBLOG continues, "They’re playing your music, with your value proposition, and your liners.  And they’re commercial-free so even your core fans will try them out.  And it also turns out that this is no ma and pa company -- it’s one of the biggest corporations in the business and they’re gunning right at your heart. It’s a sick feeling because brand managers work very hard to establish their turf, their position, and their difference.  And when another capable player with assets galore comes on the scene, it signals fragmentation and the pain that comes with it."

Is he detailing a format flip in anymarket USA?

"That has to be how TIM WESTERGREN and DANIEL EK probably felt last month when GOOGLE announced its new 'GOOGLE Play Music All Access' (OK, they’ve got to tighten up that name) -- another of these all you can eat music subscription services where the world’s music library is available to you to create infinite numbers of playlists.  Maybe it was RHAPSODY that was most uncomfortable because they’ve never cracked through, and now good old GOOGLE has designs on this space.  And these pure-play incumbents may go through that collective nausea again if the rumors that APPLE may be starting their own music service are true.  You have to believe that an APPLE-created iRADIO would be an instant problem for PANDORA, SPOTIFY, and others pure-plays."

Read the full posting here.

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