Pierre Zakarauskas, the CEO of Memotrax Music, proposed a new way to search for music at the 22nd Annual Angel Forum at the SFU Harbour Centre. By combining efficient search with "enjoyable discovery", he asserts that users will stick around longer on websites, and is targeting the music industry because it's already been proven that people will pay to get music. Using AI and visual music mapping, his service is offering a standalone player called Flookey, as well as TuniMap, a visual representation of how music connects, as well as serving as an online community. Revenue would come from targeted ads, selling "real estate" on Tunimap, and selling usage statistics data. Zakarauskas said that current solutions such as iTunes are unwieldy (a point that's up for debate, as the service is the clear leader in the online music space and doesn't appear to be hurting in terms of revenue.) But in terms of innovation, Memotrax appears to be several old ideas (music maps, standalone player, music recommendation) combined into one product. If Memotrax wants to beat Apple, Amazon and other online music retailers, they'd better try harder.
