Facing the Music
When something bothers serial entrepreneur Elon Musk, it seems he just can't help but come up with a solution. That's how the Boring Company was born. Now, it looks like Musk is being true to one of the musings he voiced during Tesla's shareholders meeting earlier this month.
At that time, Musk criticized existing music streaming algorithms and their bad playlist quality. He promised a music service feature for Tesla vehicles, which would suggest "the music you want to listen to.” Sources from the music industry are now confirming that that Tesla does, indeed, have interest in coming up with a music service. These sources confirmed to Recode that the company has already had talks about licensing proprietary music with all the major record labels.
“We believe it’s important to have an exceptional in-car experience so our customers can listen to the music they want from whatever source they choose,” a Tesla spokesperson told Recode. “Our goal is to simply achieve maximum happiness for our customers.”
While the sources aren't clear yet about the scope of Tesla's music service, it's possible that the company would start by offering a Pandora-like web radio streaming. As Tesla's vehicles come with a high-tech dashboard and full internet connectivity, this is highly possible. There's also interest from the record label companies, as Tesla's sales have been going up. They sold more than 100,000 cars last January and has already 400,000 preorders for the Model 3.
Embracing the Future
Let's take a moment to look at Tesla, though. With its hand in electric vehicles, solar power, and next-generation batteries, Musk's company is already a major player in the renewable energy market. It's also an industry leader, in its own right, in autonomous vehicle technology. Tesla's already grown past what its earliest critics expected.
Now, as Tesla expands into music streaming, it's potentially turning into this generation's monopoly. In the same way, Musk is becoming a truly versatile entrepreneur. He's already building reusable rockets and planning to go to Mars, he's digging a tunnel through L.A. traffic, and he's also supporting the conscious development of artificial intelligence. Oh, and he also has that other venture to meld human beings with machines.
There seems to be nothing Musk doesn't want to do. If you think about it, he's just being a good innovator by providing a service to answer a particular need. The question is, is there a need for the kind of music service Musk envisions?
Getting into the streaming business might seem like a weird path for Tesla to take. By providing what promises to be a better music streaming service, however, Tesla's simply improving the overall experience of driving its cars. Who wouldn't want to listen to good music while your car drives itself?
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