Was just reviewing the premium services offered for paying members of last.fm music service.
It contains a few nuggets that, suitably re-interpreted, could point the way that the future of -- for want of a better term -- "telephony" networks will take. (Or at least once telephony is an embedded feature in every other application...)
Here goes...
What features will I get?
Extra features for upgraded accounts include the following:
Updated Username Bullets. Usernames are prefixed with a coloured bullet denoting their status.
Aha! Presence is a chargeable feature. (Music isn't.)
What are your friends/neighbours listening to?
Tee hee! More presence!
See what your friends are listening to on one page.
Great for keeping up with the latest and greatest tunes your friends and neighbours are listening to.
Yep. Presence. It'll cost ya.
More Radio Options.
username's radio. Play songs from one specific profile only, such as your own. The best way to explore somebody's music taste.
Social networking!
loved tracks radio. Want to just get the sure fire hits? Listen to anyone's Loved Tracks, the cream of the crop of someone's or your profile. Positively no more need for radio DJs.
Personalisation!
personal tag radio. You tagged your music, and now want to listen to one of your tags? This is for you. Get organising that profile. And then check out what other people have tagged.
Social networking and personalisation!
All your upgraded radio modes also become available for non-upgraded users, so you can shout about your music taste, and everybody can listen to your Über-radio.
Hmmm - kind of social networking meets gifting. Maybe one day the kids will get their pocket money by spending time talking to grandma...
Recent Visitors displayed on your Profile Page. People who have recently visited your profile page are listed in your sidebar. This is a fun way to keep track of who is checking you out ;)
Yup, more social networking.
Guaranteed Streaming Slot. Our radio servers can get overloaded during peak times. As a subscriber you'll still be able to connect - we will kick out a normal user to give you a slot. This is class war!
QoS. At least they're brutally frank about it.
Discovery Mode for the radio. Got all excited about the above? Switch on Discovery Mode in the Player and we will only play you stuff you have never listened to before. How is that for discovering new music? Same tag, new music!
Hmmm -- just a hint of social networking -- but with a twist of lemon.
No Ads. NO ADS! Don't really need to explain this one ... Oh, and if you subscribe ads are removed for anyone viewing your page, not just you.
Attention protection. This is now officially a telco marketing feature.
Jump the Web Request Queue. Due to increasing popularity sometimes the website gets slow. As a subscriber our loadbalancing software puts you at the front of the queue and you get faster response time from the website.
More QoS.
Anyone who thinks that there's no innovation left in voice service, err, hasn't been to one of Martin and the crew's consulting workshops :)
And remember: these folks give away the music, but charge for social contact. Exactly the oppostive of your IPTV triple-play push.
Posted by Martin Geddes at 3:15 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telepocalypse.net/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/mgeddes/MT/mt-tb.cgi/544