Last week I was invited to a panel at Popkomm in Berlin to discuss cloud based music business models. Shortly before I had visited the IFA in Berlin, one of the biggest trade fairs for consumer electronics, to see what´s new at TV and radio devices. I´ll take this as an opportunity to take a look at the challenges music services are facing and at the newest devices that deliver music streams.
We all love streaming services like Youtube, Spotify or Play.fm for what they offer: immediate online access to an infinite variety of music, no matter where we are or what device we prefer to use and no need to copy files from device to device as we can collect and access our music online and on-demand.
Although this concept is as old as the web itself (or at least from 1993 when I started listening to music online), the notation “Cloud Service” helps to underline the differences in regard to pure download services like iTunes or Beatport and became one of the main topics at this year´s Popkomm, one of the largest international meeting places of the music industry.
