One of the most incredible things that technology has given us is the ability to transcend the physical limitations of the real world and our present reality. If you stop and think about it, it is
truly amazing--avatars can represent your alter ego, blogs allow you to be a publisher, YouTube and the like allow you to be a director, a producer, a star; same with podcasting. Could it be that the
more technology taps into users' passions, hobbies and desires, the more valuable it becomes? Perhaps.
Let's go back in time to music and the revolution that took place when P2P networks went
mainstream through free software. Beyond the obvious elements of ease of use, availability and platform availability, what this technology did was tap into existing behavior (you've heard me say this
before). I can't imagine a teenager from my generation who didn't make a mix tape--not one. It was a way of expressing emotion--love, hate, anger, you name it.
Which brings me to this week's
technology find: Lala.com. This Palo Alto online CD-trading site allows users to become their own DJs. Users can create their own playlists and then stream them. Another start-up, Mercora, taps into
this burgeoning market of user-cum-creator. And while it is true that online streaming radio has been around since anyone could tolerate listing over dial-up, it is only recently that the control has
been handed over to the user. And users there are--a recent article notes that Mercona has 1 million individual DJs who contribute over 3.5 to 4 million tracks, while some of the top DJs command 7,000
to 8,000 listeners per week. Not bad at all.
Beyond the obvious opportunities to turn these streams, these one-to-one relationships between distributor and listener, into advertising
opportunities, there is obvious insight that can be garnered as well. It has been said that music is a window into the soul. SO if you could examine the souls of 1 million individuals, would it be
worth it? You tell me.