As head of global content programming for Google Play, Tim Quirk is already tasked with helping people find their way through the company’s music catalogue. A speech he gave at last week’s Future of Music Summit amounted to a mission statement of sorts, structured around Quick’s crossness at a recent New Yorker article about the way digital music services make it too easy for people to find music, and thus harder to fall in love with it. “It was soaked in nostalgia. If the writer were 80, I’d give him a pass, but I’m pretty sure he’s younger than me, so f*** him. I mean that,” said Quirk, before urging his audience “don’t fetishize the past!” and attacking the notion that Google and others are devaluing music. “Because you can’t devalue music. It’s impossible. Songs are not worth exactly 99 cents and albums are not worth precisely $9.99… Music is priceless. I mean that literally and I believe that even more than I believe old people should shut up about how much better things were in our day. Here’s why. The same song will always be worth different things to different people at different times. The online music revolution hasn’t changed that. It’s simply made the fact glaringly obvious.”
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…