360-Degree Music Experiences: Use The Cloud To Target Device-Use Orbits

Business models and rights issues have both distorted and fragmented the consumer digital music experience and products. A new generation of 360-degree music services is emerging that leverages cloud functionality to bridge many of these divides, joining the dots of the digital music experience. With Apple and Google also apparently primed to make strong moves in the cloud music space, along with numerous other vendors, there is a clear sense of new momentum in digital music. The changes the next generation of services will meet increasingly sophisticated expectations of digital music consumers and pull the device firmly into the middle of the digital music experience. Current activity, though, clusters around niches of device-use orbits. Product strategists across the digital music value chain should not be distracted by unrealistic ambitions of reaching all devices but instead should focus on delivering experiences that work seamlessly within existing device-use clusters and build from those.