Interview with the head of Yandex.Music
More recently, as a bolt from the blue, the news that Yandex has launched its own music service has come down on Runet, ahead of its future American competitor from Google, which may start this year. We decided to learn firsthand from the head of Yandex.Music service Denis Tanayev about the path that Yandex had to go in order to run Russian music service in difficult legal conditions with more than 800 thousand songs from leading record companies.
Denis, what was and remains the goal of creating Yandex.Music?
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Our task is to answer user questions. We see that there is a large layer of requests for music, and we decided to make a service that will respond to them qualitatively.
What was more difficult: to negotiate with Western record labels or solve legal issues here in Russia?
Agreeing with the four major Western labels is quite simple - much easier than with a large number of Russian rightholders. To be honest, in Russia getting legal music is very difficult. It is hampered, for example, by the lack of a single base of rights, the lack of a clear position among right holders regarding the price of content. We still try to cope with this, and something even turns out, but in general the market is very unorganized.
What labels have not been reached yet? I see that there are no leading Dutch labels like Armada on Yandex.Music.
Sooner or later we will reach Holland. Labels, with which we have not yet agreed, a lot.
Should we expect the possibility of downloading individual tracks? If so, what would be the approximate cost?
While we do not plan to sell users tracks from our site, but, probably, we will make links “buy” to tracks in existing stores. Accordingly, the price will determine the store.
Despite all the richness of the music archive, the functionality of the service is still quite narrow. This was done intentionally - so as not to confuse users?
No, it’s just that we don’t have enough hands to do everything we want. Therefore, we decided to start the service in beta and, as far as possible, develop it.
Will the update of the functionality go gradually or can we expect the launch of a completely new version of Yandex.Music, with a new design? When will the full version be launched?
Hard to name the exact date. We have some set of functionality that must be done, and when it is ready, we will launch the full version.
Could you lift the veil of secrecy: what exactly is new from the functional will be on Yandex.Music?
So far, in the very near future, this will be a standard set for a good music service - recommendations, individual radio, search for clips, etc. But, of course, we are not going to stop there.
How do you assess the prospects for streaming music services in Russia? Your example shows that nothing is impossible, because many could not even think that such a service could exist in Russia, and even for free.
It seems to us that a large number of high-quality and legal streaming services will gradually appear, people will get used to them and use them. If you have good internet access, streaming music is a good alternative to downloading.
By your estimates, are there many people already using Yandex.Music? What reviews?
Quite a lot;) Users listen to several million tracks a day. Many people like the service, someone does not really - everything is as usual.
Are you going to enter the international market?
Now the service is available to users from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, that is, from all countries where Yandex is present. As the list of such countries increases, the geography of specific services will expand.
Do you plan to create applications for mobile platforms such as iOS, Android, Symbian and so on?
We have not yet made a final decision on this matter.
Last, but perhaps the most difficult question: how do you think, what streaming services, in particular, Yandex.Music, compare favorably with torrents and other sources of pirated content?
Of course, legal music is nicer and more useful than illegal :)
But seriously - such a legal orgy cannot last for a long time, sooner or later the market will stabilize, and our task is to allow users to legally listen to music on the Internet. To begin with, it is necessary that there be a change in the attitude of right holders at least to streaming on the Internet; so that they understand that this is normal and legal. We hope that Yandex.Music will contribute to this.
Especially for Habrahabr and CyberStyle.ru
...
In general, I was waiting for the appearance of such a service, first of all, from Apple and Google, but then Yandex was pleasantly surprised. The first two will not keep you waiting, but until it gets to us, Lady Gaga will give birth. So - I wish Yandex success in this direction, and our legislators - read Habrahabr more often :)
Denis, what was and remains the goal of creating Yandex.Music?
')
Our task is to answer user questions. We see that there is a large layer of requests for music, and we decided to make a service that will respond to them qualitatively.
What was more difficult: to negotiate with Western record labels or solve legal issues here in Russia?
Agreeing with the four major Western labels is quite simple - much easier than with a large number of Russian rightholders. To be honest, in Russia getting legal music is very difficult. It is hampered, for example, by the lack of a single base of rights, the lack of a clear position among right holders regarding the price of content. We still try to cope with this, and something even turns out, but in general the market is very unorganized.
What labels have not been reached yet? I see that there are no leading Dutch labels like Armada on Yandex.Music.
Sooner or later we will reach Holland. Labels, with which we have not yet agreed, a lot.
Should we expect the possibility of downloading individual tracks? If so, what would be the approximate cost?
While we do not plan to sell users tracks from our site, but, probably, we will make links “buy” to tracks in existing stores. Accordingly, the price will determine the store.
Despite all the richness of the music archive, the functionality of the service is still quite narrow. This was done intentionally - so as not to confuse users?
No, it’s just that we don’t have enough hands to do everything we want. Therefore, we decided to start the service in beta and, as far as possible, develop it.
Will the update of the functionality go gradually or can we expect the launch of a completely new version of Yandex.Music, with a new design? When will the full version be launched?
Hard to name the exact date. We have some set of functionality that must be done, and when it is ready, we will launch the full version.
Could you lift the veil of secrecy: what exactly is new from the functional will be on Yandex.Music?
So far, in the very near future, this will be a standard set for a good music service - recommendations, individual radio, search for clips, etc. But, of course, we are not going to stop there.
How do you assess the prospects for streaming music services in Russia? Your example shows that nothing is impossible, because many could not even think that such a service could exist in Russia, and even for free.
It seems to us that a large number of high-quality and legal streaming services will gradually appear, people will get used to them and use them. If you have good internet access, streaming music is a good alternative to downloading.
By your estimates, are there many people already using Yandex.Music? What reviews?
Quite a lot;) Users listen to several million tracks a day. Many people like the service, someone does not really - everything is as usual.
Are you going to enter the international market?
Now the service is available to users from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, that is, from all countries where Yandex is present. As the list of such countries increases, the geography of specific services will expand.
Do you plan to create applications for mobile platforms such as iOS, Android, Symbian and so on?
We have not yet made a final decision on this matter.
Last, but perhaps the most difficult question: how do you think, what streaming services, in particular, Yandex.Music, compare favorably with torrents and other sources of pirated content?
Of course, legal music is nicer and more useful than illegal :)
But seriously - such a legal orgy cannot last for a long time, sooner or later the market will stabilize, and our task is to allow users to legally listen to music on the Internet. To begin with, it is necessary that there be a change in the attitude of right holders at least to streaming on the Internet; so that they understand that this is normal and legal. We hope that Yandex.Music will contribute to this.
Especially for Habrahabr and CyberStyle.ru
...
In general, I was waiting for the appearance of such a service, first of all, from Apple and Google, but then Yandex was pleasantly surprised. The first two will not keep you waiting, but until it gets to us, Lady Gaga will give birth. So - I wish Yandex success in this direction, and our legislators - read Habrahabr more often :)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/106118/
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