Music Biz 2018 Highlights 'Connected: Car And Home' During Tuesday Morning Sessions

Music Biz 2018

The MUSIC BIZ ASSOCIATION (MUSIC BIZ) is celebrating its 60th anniversary at this year's annual MUSIC BIZ 2018 conference happening now through THURSDAY, MAY 17th at NASHVILLE's OMNI HOTEL (NET NEWS 5/3). During today's (5/15) sessions, panels and presentations were wide-ranging and included a morning session entitled "Connected: Home And Car." The two-part panel focused first on "Music In The Home" and later on "Connected Cars -- The Ultimate Mobile Music Devices." 

The first portion of the panel was moderated by MUSICWATCH's RUSS CRUPNICK and featured TIVO's MICHAEL JEFFREY, PANDORA's NICK MARCANTONIO, and AMAZON's RYAN REDINGTON. The panelists touched on the steady rise of streaming music in the home, especially via connected devices and smart speakers, including the AMAZON ECHO and TIVO. As of the end of 2018, a project 28% of all US households will have a smart speaker, comprising some 50 million total users; 40% of those households will have two or more devices in their home. The benefit to radio is that these devices put music back in the center of the home. REDINGTON, MARCANTONIO, and JEFFREY each shared insights into their services and the way users are interacting with the services and devices.

The ease of use and personalization abilities have seen more and more loyal users gravitating toward these platforms. REDINGTON noted that he believes the success of the services and devices center on "customer obsession. Start with the customer and work backwards, building loyalty." This same principal could apply to radio when utilizing these devices, as smart speakers further integrate music listening back in to the household. REDINGTON also noted that he believes many users are still discovering music via radio, explaining that users often ask ALEXA to play music based upon a lyric, which he believes they have first heard on the radio. With AMAZON ECHO now offering an ALEXA alarm feature, radio should capitalize on the opportunity to get back on the nightstand.

Part two of the panel was moderated by UBER's WAYNE CUNNINGHAM and featured FORD's JIM BUCZKOWSKI and GRACENOTE's BRIAN HAMILTON. The three discussed connected cars as we inch closer to full connectivity and driver-less options. HAMILTON sees the connectivity and voice interfaces as a way to improve FM radio usage in cars, which has an interface that he says "has not changed since the 1940s." With voice connectivity, drivers can call up stations instead of punching buttons, making the interface quicker, more convenient, and safer.

Additionally, the panelists explored the idea of 5G connectivity, which would allow a deeper connection between moving objects. For radio, this could mean the ability to allow GPS within the car to pull local stations directly to the car instead of scanning stations, and could then allow drivers to automatically convert to a station's online stream when they leave the on-air range, thus keeping TSL higher as people travel. This technology has far-reaching implications for radio and beyond, and the panelists discussed a five-year plan that would have drivers able to stream audio and video content from multiple platforms on multiple screens within a driver-less car scenario.

For more information about MUSIC BIZ 2018 and the panels, visit the MUSIC BIZ website here.

« see more Net News