Streaming Music Services Hash It Out on SXSW Panel
First, full disclosure: I work as head of curation for Songza Canada, so I’m entirely in favour of humans creating playlists and not algorithms. Still, it’s always good to discuss the pros and cons of various types of streaming, especially since this form of music consumption is on the upswing.
That’s exactly what this panel at SXSW was all about (although I obviously wish that Songza had been invited). From The Hollywood Reporter:
If you ever needed proof that competitors can be unlikely bedfellows — and that all of the streaming services are, er, paddling their way through the same stream — you’d have gotten it at Wednesday’s “Man vs Machine: The Curation Dilemma” panel at SXSW, which found representatives from Beats Music, Pandora, Rdio, Google Play and Tastemaker X having a very friendly conversation about the song-selection process for each of their services — often agreeing with each other about everything from best practices to how users listen to music.That doesn’t mean the panel was dull, though: moderatorStephen White of Gracenote kept things going at a clip, following up with the more interesting topics while letting no-brainer answers die quick deaths. (He asked the panelists at one point whether their services would ever be able to keep up with FM radio in cars. It’s no surprise every one of them answered, “Yes.”)
Continue reading here. USA Today has another look at the same panel here.
