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Tesla Is Talking To the Music Labels About Creating Its Own Streaming Service (recode.net)
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."
Maybe I'm missing it, but has Tesla perfected it's auto business? Should it be branching out already?
Sent from my TARDIS
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.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Even if had perfected its vehicles, this seems like a misguided effort. I would imagine that anyone who has a Tesla already has a smartphone that either contains their own music or access to a streaming service. I can't imagine a world in which this adds more value to Tesla's products than it consumes in hours spent developing the service or even negotiating it. Build a nice hub that makes it easy for people to plug in their own devices or services to and there's no need to worry about building your own service. I'd rather have a better cup holder in my vehicle than yet another music streaming service.
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.