Music discovery is a revenue driver for content owners before it is a convenience to consumers. So why are music discovery services more like destinations than features? Look at Last.fm, Pandora, Imeem, TheSixtyOne — they all require users to break out of the normal habit of listening on iTunes/WMP and proactively visit a separate site. If helping people discover music increases consumption, and presumably revenues, why is discovery not being pushed to users’ primary usage channels?

Music discovery should be persistent companion to music consumption

Relevant recommendations could exist alongside as users browse their own libraries and at best, users should spend as much time enjoy their own content as they do engaging in discovery. And I mean more than that shitty footer-bar inside iTunes that merely links to the storefront. What about interactive widgets that connect users to multiple forms of discovery (crowd favorites, characteristically similar, social heatmap, digital mixtapes) as well as artist info and even a little event discovery?

What’s the single best way to promote music? Let people be constantly connected with what their friends listen to—it’s like free advertising, but people will perceive it as a feature.

The problem with the channel strategy today is that each channel only cares about a small-piece of the distribution landscape. Apple wants you to buy music, not spend all day browsing around last.fm or muxtape. Last.fm wants you to spend less time building your personal library, and more time listening to their radio. We need to have some kind of one-stop-shop that isn’t loaded with conflicting interests across its own sales/discovery channels.