Yahoo VP Predicts the Future of Music Radio

Yahoo! Music VP/GM David Goldberg foresees a log of good things for music consumers and Internet radio.

In a speech last week Goldberg said of Internet radio, "What's very clear is that we're still early on in what is a pretty big opportunity."

But in his vision of the future of music, CDs will be replaced by a purely digital world of on-demand and subscription services; and music will no longer exist on broadcast radio!

"We hope that 10 years from now almost no one is accessing Yahoo services on a PC. It needs to be in my living room, in my car, on my cellphone. This will affect the change in replacing the CD, as well as moving music off of broadcast radio, which is also what we believe will happen.

"We really want to replace broadcast radio for music discovery. We believe music will migrate off of terrestrial radio to the services we are offering because we can deliver the music consumers want, when they want it, where they want it," he explained. "CDs will be replaced by on-demand subscription services. 'Personalization' and 'community' features will be key ways we'll be able to deliver the right music to people at the right time, on devices, on a global basis."

But Goldberg also says there's work to be done, particularly in the matter of sound recording royalties.

"We really need to focus on harmonizing the rates for music access across all different forms of radio experience. There's no reason that terrestrial radio should get music for free, that Internet radio should pay this very high rate, that satellite radio and cable radio pay some place in between -- music is music, the radio experience is the radio experience, and the fact that we don't have as much political clout as terrestrial broadcasters shouldn't matter," Goldberg said. "It's a matter of fairness -- and I believe artists should get paid for their music getting played on Internet and terrestrial radio.

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You may read a recap of Goldberg's speech here.