Back in the early ’90s, I sat in the office at 99X in Atlanta. There, I watched record labels filter in to pitch whatever songs they had. Back then, it was pretty simple. In other words, music discovery meant getting your song on a radio station and exposing it to thousands of people.
Since then, music discovery has changed a lot, and it continues to change as we move forward. But here’s what’s real: there’s far more new music out there than ever before. As a result, cutting through is only going to get harder. That doesn’t make radio obsolete. In fact, it makes it even more valuable. Still, with Spotify now working with Meta’s new Muse agent, it’ll be interesting to see where this takes us.
Muse Is Programming Dayparts
For starters, Muse can play music on Spotify, save songs to your library, and build and name playlists. It can also help you find new artists, podcasts and audiobooks — all through a conversation. On top of that, it can schedule your listening. Heading out for a 7 a.m. run? Muse starts your workout playlist. Got an hour blocked on your calendar for focused work? Then it cues up your focus playlist. Planning a road trip? In that case, it builds a playlist inspired by your destination and starts it when you hit the road.
Once again, it’s the argument I’ve made before: the DSPs are becoming more and more like radio stations. Come on — this is just another example of dayparting.
Now, instead of a program director or music director, an AI agent like Muse helps you discover music. That seems a little cold to me, but we’ll have to see.
Discovery on Autopilot
Back at 99X, music director Sean Demery and I would periodically head to the local mall and the record store. Once there, we’d dig around and see what they were doing. I’d also spend time listening to WRAS, Georgia State’s radio station and my old college station. With any luck, I’d fish something out. Every so often, we’d find something. When we did, we’d bring it back to the music meeting. From there, everybody could discover it and decide whether we were going to play it.
So it wasn’t all record labels feeding us what to play next. Instead, we were getting adventurous and looking for new music.
So here’s the question. Without a record store or college radio station to fish in, where is Muse digging for something new? And how does this all work? It seems like a bot that knows me but probably greatly underestimates the weird stuff I listen to. Then again, technology has a way of figuring that out, too. Frankly, it’s all a little bit terrifying.
Who Do You Pitch Now?
Clearly, you can see the gradual evolution here. At first, the gatekeeper was a radio station. Then it became playlist curators and editors. Now it’s becoming Muse. So the question is, how do you influence Muse? For now, we’re going to have to see how this all plays out.
Just Another Venue
That said, I don’t think this is the cataclysmic end of music discovery. Rather, it’s just another venue. You can still see a band open for another band and get turned on to them. Likewise, your friend down the street who’s a music head might turn you on to something. Of course, radio is professionally curated by somebody who, hopefully, listens to a lot of music. That’s not true of every brand, so pick your flavor. But there are still plenty of radio stations out there that can bring the noise. After all, it’s not all homogenized. Or there may be some other source you grab tunes from. Either way, this certainly opens a new pathway to influence your decisions.
These are truly uncharted waters, and we’re going to have to dive in. Admittedly, knowing that Meta, the 800-pound gorilla, has teamed up with Spotify can be a bit daunting. But this is music discovery in the modern age. We can’t deny it. Instead, we just need to embrace it and understand it on a professional level. On a personal level, however, that’s up to you.
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