Here at Nue one of the emerging sectors in culture that we are most bullish on is the utilization of voice recognition technology and digital audio. Everyone knows about smart speakers at this point. Over 40 million people in the US now have them and quite clearly it’s an arms race with Google, Apple and many more allocating a lot of resources to support the new technology. However, the content created specifically for this new platform is a long way off from having significant impact. I use my Amazon Alexa every day for basic things but the skills applications leave me desiring more. We made a skill last year called Recipe Remix. The premise was simple – your favorite artist walking you through how to cook their favorite dishes step by step all using voice recognition technology. In theory, when Snoop Dogg would chop the tomatoes on his Lasagna or put the dish in the oven, he would play his new single or favorite song timed perfectly to match the cooking task at hand. We created a few episodes (thanks to the support of Ritz and Betaworks) and then uploaded our pilot featuring Spencer Ludwig. We learned a lot of lessons from creating this show, specifically, how to make content for this new era. However, some of the challenges we faced demonstrated the need for voice recognition specific content and we were clearly ahead of our time and let’s face it, timing is everything in making things pop.
That said, we do believe this wave is coming. It’s clear as crystal to me that in the near future we won’t be “Googling” directions to bars or restaurants nearby but utilizing voice technology. Whoever owns these type of search queries will most certainly be crowned the new Google and of course, might even be Google. So the moral of this story? The more energy, innovation, awareness, artists, producers and content creators we can encourage to build on voice recognition technology, the better it is for the culture overall.
I’ve got to give props to Gary V and Vayner Media. Today they are hosting the first ever VoiceCon in NYC. This should be a one of a kind gathering of some of the best and brightest innovators in the space with interesting conversations about sonic branding and defining your music strategy. Hats off to Gary for staying on the pulse and trying to push culture forward. After this story dropped last week in the LA Times, looks like Cannabis is also up next for him. Puff-Puff-Pass.
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