Tesla Is Talking To the Music Labels About Creating Its Own Streaming Service (recode.net) 66
An anonymous reader shares a Recode report: Music industry sources say the carmaker has had talks with all of the major labels about licensing a proprietary music service that would come bundled with its cars, which already come equipped with a high-tech dashboard and internet connectivity. Label sources aren't clear about the full scope of Tesla's ambitions, but believe it is interested in offering multiple tiers of service, starting with a Pandora-like web radio offering. The bigger question: Why doesn't Tesla simply integrate existing services, like Spotify or Apple Music, into all of its cars from the start -- especially since Tesla already does a deal with Spotify for Teslas sold outside the U.S.? "We believe it's important to have an exceptional in-car experience so our customers can listen to the music they want from whatever source they choose," a Tesla spokesperson said. "Our goal is to simply achieve maximum happiness for our customers."
Has it's car business done so well it's moving on? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Has it's car business done so well it's moving (Score:4, Insightful)
I expect that the goal is to provide a solution in-car that doesn't rely on third-party software or third-party services.
Third-party software running on the car's computers introduces the possibility for vulnerability that Tesla cannot itself patch to correct, and also introduces the possibility of the service's provider choosing to end the service and thus the car now no longer having the feature.
Think Blu-ray players and smart TVs that have Youtube clients that don't work anymore, or have i heart radio clients that don't work, or physical buttons on the remotes for Amazon or for Netflix and don't work.
If Tesla's goal is to ensure that those who drive Teslas don't have to concern themselves with this kind of minutia, then it makes sense that Tesla would seek to establish its own channels for this sort of content. By going directly to the labels themselves, with a definable, limited scope of use, they might be able to negotiate deals that are more ironclad and less open to argument that one party or the other is misusing content compared to the original terms.
Obviously this is only speculation since I do not work for Tesla or have any other special insight.
What remains to be seen is if Tesla would then seek to offer home-appliances similar to how there are home XM/Sirius satellite radio receivers and home HD-Radio receivers. It could be that Tesla will be limited to only in-car entertainment, or there could be a natural limit similar to those on the satellite radio market where there just aren't that many people that buy home-receviers.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Not sure who the market is for yet another music feed.
If someone spends time curating their spotify/pandora/ feed are they really going to want to spend the time to curate a separate Tesla music feed?
Re: (Score:2)
Tesla can just buy that info. It's bought and sold all over the place.
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps, but lots of people don't currently use Spotify, Pandora, or a similar service, and frankly we don't know what kind of pricing structure Tesla will make such a service available on. For all we know, if you buy a sufficiently up-optioned car this will just be enabled, or it may be a very low-cost option paid-for as part of the regular maintenance that Tesla offers as a package to the customer.
If Tesla automobiles have a longer service-life than a conventional petroleum-powered vehicle then a custome
Re: (Score:2)
The entertainment system should be entirely separate from the stuff that drives the bloody thing, so that should be a very minor consideration.
To me the decision makes no sense at all. You don't make something like that unless you're in the business of making things like that - and Tesla isn't.
Colossal waste of time and money, but it's unlikely to kill anybody.
turtles all the way down (Score:2)
Oh my, what a frisson of inceptionally lawsuit goodness!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This actually explains the satellite radio model well- it starts-out "free" for a single year or whatever then gets shut down when the end subscriber doesn't care enough to bother paying for it.
Wife receives letters in the mail offering cheap renewal, she just throws them away. Doesn't feel a need to pay, not enough value over local OTA radio stations.
If we go on road-trips then that may be another matter, but until then we're fine.
Re: (Score:1)
Maybe I'm missing it, but has Tesla perfected it's auto business? Should it be branching out already?
Continual distractions help to keep investors from focusing on present performance.
Re:Has it's car business done so well it's moving (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Teslas already allow streaming from your own device over Bluetooth. They also have "TuneIn" (on line radio directory) and "Slacker" (like Pandora, Spotify, etc.) streaming built into the head unit. These are included free with the purchase of the car.
I imagine that Tesla will want to keep offering music services and not be dependent on outside companies which may change their policies, terms, etc. at any time.
I doubt there is much development time. They just need to negotiate for rights to music and playlis
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe I'm missing it, but has Tesla perfected it's auto business?
Mostly yes. Nothing is "perfect" but by many measures, Tesla is doing better than any other automaker. They have the highest customer satisfaction, the best safety qualifications, etc.
Should it be branching out already?
Why not? How hard is it to slap together a streaming service? By running it on their own servers, they can control bandwidth and collect monetizable data.
Re: (Score:2)
Umm, except quality is so bad CU took them off the recommended list. Further I've seen articles with Tesla customers saying things like "I would never tolerate these sorts of problems with my Lexus, but I am Ok with it on my Tesla". Once the wave of 1st adopters is over, and real people buy these cars and compare it to other manufacturers at the same price point, Tesla may crater. Especially given their well documented problems n timely repairs/service.
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe I'm missing it, but has Tesla perfected it's auto business?
Mostly yes. Nothing is "perfect" but by many measures, Tesla is doing better than any other automaker.*
* Profitability not included in any judgment or statement about doing better...
I already have it (Score:1)
Its called my cell phone. Pass.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't get why we need another streaming service. We have tons to choose from, and they have matured to where they are decent. To boot, why would I want a streaming service that I can't use everywhere, and not just my vehicle?
Then, there are times when I'm out of cellular tower range. Copying my music collection to a MicroSD card and playing that locally ensures that I have music even there.
I can understand Tesla "blessing" another music service, but creating their own? Doesn't sound like a real wise i
Re: (Score:2)
Musk is more of a modern-day Howard Hughes than a Da Vinci. It isn't to say that Musk isn't technical, clearly he has to be in order to be able to make intelligent decisions on the technical matters that his businesses are focused on, but he has lots and lots of people working for him and he's probably managing people much more than he's personally creating.
Re: (Score:2)
Given the successful space launches and cars I don't think there's any risk of him being remembered best for his PayPal involvement.
Re: (Score:2)
Musk says he spends 80% of his time on technical product development.
Re: (Score:2)
But what does that mean exactly?
That could mean that he spends his time reviewing and signing-off on the work that his subordinates bring to him. He has personnel departments at his companies, they probably handle the structural part of employee decisions, so it's not like he has to be hiring/firing personally.
He would have to be technical in order to review drawings properly to make decisions based on what he receives. That is an aspect of technical product development. He could then make changes or adv
Re: (Score:2)
I think there's a pretty clear line between managing people and technical product development. Musk is very technically literate and actively directs technical product development.
This is just stupid (Score:1)
I'd accept it if they actually were adding something new, but the major dashboard functionality hasn't changed since the very first cars. I have zero faith in Tesla's ability to write good user-facing software.
Re: This is just stupid (Score:1)
I'd rather they keep focusing on the road facing software.
Re: (Score:2)
can you selectively deny some updates?
anything with forced updates is not something I would want to own or buy, especially a car!
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
"His product sucks and I don't want him to try and improve it"
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The Tesla software is mostly fine except for USB media. That, most definitely, deserves whatever derision you can throw at it. It's still better than some cars, though. (256 song limit, Nissan? Really?)
Streaming through bluetooth is fine, though I wish you could select a different streaming media connection from the phone connection. Then I could receive phone calls while my son is watching a movie on the iPad. I'm sure others have similar issues where separating the two features would be really nice.
Re: (Score:2)
The recent update removes the ability to select the media sour
Why not include 3rd party streamers (Score:2)
Profit margin. Streaming music is relatively easy - there's even OSS to spool up your own MP3s. Why should Telsa overpay for a streaming name brand when they can just keep the profits? (It's not like someone won't buy a Tesla because iTunes isn't integrated.)
Cars as a distribution platform (Score:2)
The bigger question: Why doesn't Tesla simply integrate existing services, like Spotify or Apple Music, into all of its cars from the start
Because they need to boost their projections and streaming ads didn't make it out of committee. For once.
Zawinski (Score:4, Funny)
A corollary to Zawinski's law of software envelopment:
Every tech company will move into new markets until they have a streaming music service.
Re: (Score:2)
Tesla isn't selling a music streaming service. They are selling cars. The cars come with music streaming at no charge. Why would they pay Apple, Spotify, etc. a premium price when they can easily license music themselves for less cost.
Isn't Tesla a band? (Score:2)
I mean, i know they are... i saw them years ago as an opening act... So here we have Tesla the car company getting into the music business. Isn't this why Apple Corps records sued Apple? Trademark?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
And apple corps and apple computer are referencing the same fruit. It's not the origin that matters, but the potential for confusion.
Which is harder? Cars or Music service? (Score:1)
Tesla: Yer adorable! Us too!
Dear Lord, Automakers, Stop it. (Score:4, Insightful)
Things I need from a car radio: FM/AM tuner. Maybe a satellite radio tuner. Interface to my phone. Bluetooth is generally OK, Android Auto or Apple CarPlay are nice to haves. Providing a nice place to mount a phone dock with convenient power/USB would be fantastic.
Things I don't need that my phone does better: GPS using the app of my choice, locked in "apps" for music/podcast services I don't use.
Please try to stop reinventing the wheel and ending up with some half-assed result. Even the old people have smartphones now. The people who don't are listening to AM talk radio and using paper maps and don't care about your fiddly buttons. People use their phones rather than in-vehicle crap that's out of date when the car is delivered. Get over it. Make that work nicely. That's a hard enough problem.
Re: (Score:2)
Disagree!
My wife doesn't have a smart phone, so that's not an option for her. Streaming music directly through the entertainment system is a big plus. I'll agree that having the option to stream it from a phone is absolutely critical. You should even be able to use a separate bluetooth connection for streaming media from your phone for voice calls, so the driver can receive calls while a passenger is streaming music.
As to navigation, you can't beat the map on the car's 17" display. Yes, Waze works bette
Re: (Score:2)
Yes and no.
If the car is playing the MP3s (or other formats), then the car needs a player that is convenient. It's easy to fail in this. The engineers who design it often don't expect a 1TB drive with 200,000 songs on it. And tomorrow the numbers may be larger. Maybe for large drives, the car may need to create a subdirectory with index file--that's fine; just don't reject the media or crash if there are too many songs.
The interface needs to handle playing by directory, artist, album, playlist, etc.
Good
Maximum happiness (Score:2)
"Our goal is to simply achieve maximum happiness for our customers." Sounds like a line from a benevolent droid on Dr Who right before it and its 10 000 chums begin slaughtering every warm-blooded creature within a 10-mile radius.
Sort-of Makes Sense (Score:2)
I think I can see the reasoning here.
Tesla is paying fees to Slacker (in the US) and other services (elsewhere) for streaming. They've been growing so quickly that the fees for the cars already on the road have been irrelevant, but they're reaching a point where it's going to be an issue, especially if the margin on the Model 3 is lower.
One option is to just require owners to pay for a subscription to Slacker (or whatever service they support) after a few years if they want to continue to use it. That's s
squirrel (Score:3)
SYNCING (Score:1)