Google’s Tim Quirk’s plan for music is to turn it all into advertising. Meet the Anti-Steve Jobs.
It’s not news that Google values almost everything as advertising. Its economic model is built on using things to sell other things. It’s circular for everyone but Google, because Google sits in the middle and collects revenue on ads and sales for things it doesn’t produce, stock, or deliver. And this model has proved fabulously effective at generative wealth for Google. But how far does it go? This Google way of seeing - that the inherent value of a thing is to sell another thing - is there a limit?
No. Quirk may actually believe what he says in the quote above - that music can't be devalued - but because he’s completely inculcated in Google Think, his practical ideas make music < ads, because at Google ads > E, where E is everything else. So, his idea to save music is, quite naturally: turn ALL of it into ads.
We saw just how deeply his view runs at The Big Bang Forum held last week. BBF is a kind of Davos for the music business, where music people get together with tech, distribution and venues people to talk about Big Ideas. There are always stars at these kinds of conferences. One of this year’s was Quirk, Google's head of programming for Google Music. As you would expect, it’s not possible to be an executive at Google without looking at the world its way - to drink the full liter of Google Kool Aid. To see, in effect, all things as advertising for other things.
Even, and especially, music. Now - I don’t mean “use music in advertisements sometimes.” Quirk’s view is more fundamental, more essentially Google. In his view, music is advertising. How do we know? From his suggestion for How To Save The Music Business.
1st, Quirk 1st reaffirmed the “tiered fan” model that everyone recognizes:
There’s the general public, which will mostly no longer pay for music
There’s the fan, who will pay something for particular artists.
There’s the “super-fan”, who will pay almost anything for special features, extra access, videos, early tickets, meet-and-greets, and merchandise. These people are gold.
Now, to Quirk’s BIG GOOGLE IDEA to save music. Quirk says music should be presented as apps, which are given away. So, if Drake has a new record, it’s distributed as a stand-alone app that’s free. When you open it, you can listen to (most of) the music for free, but then you’re invited into the inner sanctum of tiered access for which you pay. More songs, or early-access tickets, or videos, or the chance to buy a Drake hat. In other words, the music serves only as advertising for other stuff. Sure, you might like it as a listening experience. But it’s only monetary value is advertising.
Okay - that’s how Google thinks, so this is natural. But let’s look at it.
1. We need a revolution that not everything exists just to sell something else. Seriously. It’s a sickness. Music - for God’s sake - if not music, then what? Is a Bob Dylan record just a way to sell a Bob Dylan hat? Jobs loved music for its inherent value, which is why he created a platform that paid people for making it. He didn’t mind making a few billion for his investors along the way, but at least he valued music at some level for itself. Google’s greatest value is to turn everything into advertising, so Quirk proposes to do that. It’s just a cultural thing, baked into the executives.
2. Quirk’s solution is the 1st to actually eliminate paying writers by design. It’s already very hard for writers. Mechanical royalties are down and streaming services pay next-to-nothing. But Quirk’s idea to give all music away to sell something else means writers would be paid nothing by design. And that’s a new way of thinking that reflects Google’s values. Advertising > Everything.
3. Music as Apps is retrograde technology. This is the shocking one for me. Do your really want a separate app for every record you listen to? The brilliance of iTunes was to bring all music into a single icon on a phone or desktop. It runs fairly lean, because it’s primarily a locker. The massive data streams to you once or several times, but always within a single program:iTunes. Or, for that matter, Google Play or Spotify. Quirk’s idea to turn every record into an app means to unbundle iTunes - to turn every record you “own” into its own program. How much memory would that take? Also: picture the bloodbath for icon space. And these individual programs - remember, they’re not music, but just platforms to keep selling you other stuff.
And that brings us to the final thing Google wants to turn into advertising: You.
