The cold sound, how to melt into a part of the music industry

(This article comes from Titanium Media's independent content brand titanium geek. All black technology that lets you open your mind is here.)

When Apple launched Apple Music, the global music streaming industry ushered in a dramatic acceleration. Earlier this year, Apple executives Eddy Kuy and Craig Federich announced that Apple Music's paid for has exceeded 1100 Million.

With the huge influence of Apple, the entire music industry, including record companies, artists, and content providers, has begun to actively promote the development of music streaming services around the world in its own way.

As an output device for music, although it is inextricably linked to music, audio has always been marginalized in the music industry where content is the main driving force.

Titanium geeks discovered that there is an exception for Sonos, a wireless smart audio brand from North America. At the beginning of the company’s founding in 2002, it seems that it has already gained insight into the development trend of online music streaming media, and has “content first” since its inception. The genes.

Sonos has never stopped looking for partners since he decided to connect his wireless audio products to third-party music streaming services. A few months ago, Sonos has used wireless speakers to test the Apple Music service and the service has now officially launched. All users of Sonos Audio will be able to access Apple Music content directly on the corresponding APP.

Always pursue a "content first" strategy

The speed of development in the information age has always shocked us. It was hard to imagine the value of companies such as Uber and Didi a few years ago. The fact is that they have become an integral part of our lives and the mobile Internet is undergoing profound changes. With our lifestyle, information terminals have long since moved from the PC to the mobile phone.

The same is true for music. The popularity of smart phones has largely escaped the limitations of music playback. No matter where you are, mobile phones have become our organ to carry, which has played a role in the development of online music streaming media. Promote the role of aid.

Music content is a soul-like existence for audio products, but it is not for Sonos that there is a product first to find music content, but that the entire music content is streamlined.

Sonos had done a very detailed investigation report during the early planning of the product, predicting that in the next decade, streaming media will become the main way for people to acquire music, and there will be hundreds of music services to provide content for them. So from the point of view of music development of the product structure.

First, the record turned to the cloud, and then the content began to turn to the cloud. The result of this change is that users need to have the corresponding equipment to realize the process of listening to songs from the cloud, and design corresponding products based on the insights into people's music habits and social environment. .

In 2011, when Sonos began to establish a Chinese team, he began preparations for music services. Even before the brand and channel had been established, he had put music services first and foremost. The entire team lasted for five years, from one in 2011, two in 2012, to now China has joined with 14 local music content service providers. Currently, the number is 60 in the world.

These partners include almost all domestic well-known audio content providers such as shrimp music, QQ music, NetEase cloud music, and Himalayan FM. In other words, as long as you have a Sonos audio system, you can use the same as the Apple Music service just mentioned. There is no need to switch back and forth between music and control applications, and audio content in all of the aforementioned service provider music libraries is acquired in one APP.

Intelligence is the only way to audio

One of the characteristics of Internet products is that the iteration cycle is fast, but Sonos has added 8 products to all product lines over the years. The last update of Play:5 has just been released in 2009, and the speed of a product is updated in six years. It's no wonder that the industry is dubbed the "slow company."

What this "slow" maps is not the lack of innovation but the "return to the origin."

The person in charge of the related products of Sonos told the titanium geek, "The most traditional pursuit of music is to capture the sound of nature. This sound should be ubiquitous. For the user, the more important than the hardware is the experience, and the source of experience In many ways, in addition to 'construction of content', the technical support behind it is also an important part.

Sonos also spent a lot of time in the "presentation" as a carrier to present songs to users. For example, on a new generation of Play:5 on a "black technology": TruePlay is a calibration function that automatically calculates the number of speakers in the room, and then help you adjust to the best balance.

Its usage scenario is this:

Play PLAY:5, iPhone open Sonos application, click "Trueplay Tuning" in the settings, Sonos system will measure the peripheral noise through the iPhone's microphone, as well as the reflection of sound from the room walls and furniture. Then automatically adjust the sound of the Sonos sound and give an optimal solution.

In Sonos's eyes, the smart thing is gradual. From music content to audio products, Sonos is more willing to think of himself as a smart sound system, using hardware and software to build ecosystems to attract more users.

Melting into the music industry

Music streaming services have developed very early in the West, but the domestic music market is still at a relatively low level of development. Fortunately, this change is happening, and we can clearly feel that the domestic music content service providers gradually pay attention to copyright awareness, and users' habits of paying for premium content also begin to develop.

The development of online streaming media has driven the entire music industry. More and more online music streaming service providers are also looking for channel partners in order to allow their content to reach more users in different scenarios.

When the general trend really comes up, Sonos seems to be the only solution. The emergence of Sonos is a breakthrough in product sense, but the contribution to the music industry is actually creating a music presentation that is more in line with the user's habits. Looking at the history of the music industry in recent decades, it is more like the inevitable product of a period.

In the 80s of last century, Sony D-50 set off a popularization of CD player revolution. CD used 20 years to squeeze vinyl records and cassettes into the “history museum”. By the 90s, when file sharing began to spread on the Internet, the recording music that had been popular for more than a century had undergone earth-shaking changes. Into the 21st century, the soundtrack was replaced by a full playlist, and the stars on social media ushered in a golden age of live broadcasting.

Innovators such as Spotify, Pandora, Sound Cloud, and Apple are rushing into the revolutionary tide of online music streaming media. From the 12-year-old kid on the street to the vinyl record collector, everyone can use software to get to the era of recorded music. Several centuries of works.

In the process of the gradual emergence of the Internet, traditional physical music is in decline. Vinyl records have become a tool for people's nostalgic collections. The replacement of traditional music with online music streaming is an irreversible trend. This wave will inevitably give rise to products such as Sonos. Through the integration of content and hardware, it will bring different forms of music presentation, gradually melting into a part of the music industry.