These are the Big Internet Trends for Music in 2017

Forbes has a story on Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends 2017 report, which takes 355 pages to outline what we should expect in terms of everything from healthcare to gaming to music. If you’re interested in reading the whole report, by all means, fill yer boots. But if you don’t have the time, here the four topline trends to watch.

1. Streaming curation is not as social as you might think.

Nope. It’s more about individualization.

This growing breadth of music discovery is arguably driven more by the platform itself surfacing up new content than by the activity of an individual’s bounded social network. Put another way, effective recommendations on playlists like Discover Weekly and Release Radar require crowds, but not groups.

2. There’s still a lot of mobile money left on the table.

More effort needs to be made to get consumers to buy music productions from their mobile phones.

One important challenge that remains, particularly in the live and retail sectors of music, is driving more sales on mobile devices, beyond subscription streaming. Mobile accounts for 70% of concert browsing and discovery activity, but only 30% of actual transactions—signaling the need for better mobile e-commerce experiences with higher conversion rates.

3. Visual and vocal cues will drive more music discovery and search.

I just can’t see myself talking to my devices, but that’s just me. Yet:

The rise of voice-enabled devices may introduce an entirely new paradigm for music discovery by removing LED screens entirely, legitimized by rapid adoption rates and backend improvements.

Sitting in my Singapore hotel room, I saw a feature on News Channel Asia with a guest that asserted that we’re going to see more technological change in the next ten years than we saw in the past 100. Buckle in.