5 Questions with Steve Skrzyniarz, Co-Founder and CEO of Soundflavor

Authored by Jay Baage on October 5, 2006 - 4:26am.

From Digital Music Forum West 2006: Soundflavor, a developer of digital music search and recommendation technologies, introduced on Wednesday a free companion application for Apple's iTunes that makes recommendations from a user's own music library - and from outside music stores - when they play a song or playlist. DMW sat down with Steve Skrzyniarz, Co-Founder and CEO of Soundflavor, and asked him five quick questions.

DMW: What is your business model?
Skrzyniarz: We have several. We license our software (search technology and recommendation engine) to music publishers. Then we are now moving into the consumer space, with commission on sales of, for example, concert tickets through our recommendation engine. We also have straight advertising revenue and artists and labels paying us to include songs in our recommendation engine.

Is the Music Business in as much trouble as some say?
It needs to change, but digital technologies opens up all these new opportunities. iTunes sold over a billion songs so far. That is a lot.

Do you see any real competition to iTunes on the horizon?
Sure, Microsoft and Zune for example. But for now they are the market leader, which is why we choose to build our application for iTunes.

Own or Rent as the way to access music?
I am pretty neutral on this subject, I think both models have merit. I myself tend to buy music, but we have designed our software so that it won’t matter what models consumers choose. Our software will work with a subscription service too.

What do you think about advertising funded free music services?
The advertising needs to be contextually relevant, mass marketing is not as effective. That is where music recommendations comes in. They will be very important to the sales of music going forward.

Related Links:
Soundflavor Debuts Music Search and Recommendation Technologies
www.soundflavor.com
More Coverage of Digital Music Forum West 2006

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Comments

How is Soundflavor any different to other players?

Submitted by julie (not verified) on October 5, 2006 - 5:32am.

What makes Soundflavor any better than the Last.fm's and Pandora's out there? I actually use iCueMix which seems to be identical to your product (although I have to say it's given me much better recommendations for new music) Jules

iCueMix/The Filter

Submitted by Vern (not verified) on October 7, 2006 - 12:12am.

iCueMix has recently rebranded as The Filter, and I've got to say it does indeed create far better playlists that also sync up and auto refresh with an iPod. I have been really impressed by the design of SoundFlavor... But then I tried to build a list around Modest Mouse in which I got around 9 modest mouse songs! Dude, If I wanted to listen to Modest Mouses album I would have just put that on!

The Filter

Submitted by The Shadow (not verified) on October 9, 2006 - 5:49am.

Have downloaded this from http://www.thefilter.com and it is fantastic. I've been most impressed with some of the playlists it's suggested!

The suggestion element of

Submitted by aoc gold (not verified) on August 9, 2008 - 10:27pm.

The suggestion element of the software is excellent, but I'm constantly having issues running it through XP-64. Any ideas?

I also think that the

Submitted by chinese food (not verified) on September 17, 2008 - 10:26pm.

I also think that the advertising funded free music services going to work only if the content of the ads is quite relevant, which narrows down the potential advertisers a lot.

Thanks for your Overview

Submitted by eve isk (not verified) on November 3, 2008 - 5:27am.

So called DJ from SoundFlavor is one of the very few programs that bluntly violates one the most basic Internet privacy rules that Internet programs should work only in special zone of your hard drive. This program sneaks around all your hard drives and sends data back to SoundFlavor. None of the browsers or players is doing that. If you have this program installed UNINSTALL IT IMMEDIATELY.

music business

Submitted by aoc gold (not verified) on February 19, 2009 - 10:27pm.

The music industry (or music business) sells compositions, recordings and performances of music. It employs about a quarter of million people,[1] including: the musicians who compose and perform the music; the companies and professionals who create and sell recorded music, music publishers, producers, studios, engineers, record labels, retail and online music stores, performance rights organizations); those that present live music performances (booking agents, promoters, music venues, road crew); professionals who assist musicians with their careers (talent managers, business managers, entertainment lawyers); those who broadcast music (satellite and broadcast radio); journalists; educators; musical instrument manufacturers; as well as many others.

Make it easy to find songs.

Submitted by buy darkfall gold (not verified) on March 5, 2009 - 3:25pm.

Soundflavor gives us a ridiculous number of ways to find music. Plenty of ways to find music that meets our tastes,and similar music discovery services will recommend new music for you based on the songs you like. Make it easy to find songs. It is different. Thanks for sharing thoughts.

It's great that Apple is

Submitted by Ffxi Gil (not verified) on April 5, 2009 - 10:07pm.

It's great that Apple is expanding business horizons and partnering up with several companies to be able to offer more products over at iTunes store. I am a sucker for music and I love my Apple gizmos!

soundflavor all about

Submitted by houston wedding photographer (not verified) on April 13, 2009 - 1:16am.

The Soundflavor engine is designed to help consumers discover, sample, and purchase music as playlists (the digital music equivalent of mix tapes) by suggesting individual songs—or playlists— which match their unique tastes in music. The technology marries objective (and unbiased) metadata, artificial intelligence, and listener ratings to yield unparalleled accuracy The Soundflavor engine is algorithmic, and not subject to outside influence. Independent labels and musicians who pay to include their songs in the company’s Song print™ database will find their music recommended alongside (or above) major recording artists. Major labels can find markets for new artists, back catalog, and under-marketed music. Music providers can quickly direct customers with distinct tastes to songs they’ll truly appreciate, regardless of popularity, expanding the size of their marketable catalog.

very good questions

Submitted by eve isk (not verified) on April 14, 2009 - 10:32pm.

Independent labels and musicians who pay to include their songs in the company’s Song print™ database will find their music recommended alongside (or above) major recording artists. Major labels can find markets for new artists, back catalog, and under-marketed music. Music providers can quickly direct customers with distinct tastes to songs they’ll truly appreciate, regardless of popularity, expanding the size of their marketable catalog.

Well nice to see that the

Submitted by Computer Howto (not verified) on April 22, 2009 - 11:06pm.

Well nice to see that the music business has stated getting back on track. I think advertising funded free music good do a lot of good to music industry.

Unblock Facebook

Submitted by Unblock Facebook (not verified) on April 23, 2009 - 8:52am.

Major labels can find markets for new artists, back catalog, and under-marketed music. I also think that the advertising funded free music services going to work only if the content of the ads is quite relevant, which narrows down the potential advertisers a lot.

Irrespective of who you are

Submitted by Astronomy Club (not verified) on April 26, 2009 - 10:23pm.

Irrespective of who you are competing with, its your determination that would make you a winner. Nice to learn that music industry is slogging at its best to survive.

Twitter Apps

Submitted by Twitter Apps (not verified) on April 28, 2009 - 11:04am.

This program sneaks around all your hard drives and sends data back to SoundFlavor. None of the browsers or players is doing that. If you have this program installed UNINSTALL IT IMMEDIATELY..So called DJ from SoundFlavor is one of the very few programs that bluntly violates one the most basic Internet privacy rules that Internet programs should work only in special zone of your hard drive.