Laughing Alexa

Is Alexa laughing at you?

In the past few days, some users of Echo home speakers

running Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa voice-based digital

assistant have reported hearing strange laughing noises at

random. Some people have said the laughter happened in

response to unrelated commands, while others reported that

it occurred unprompted.

Amazon confirmed on Wednesday that in rare

circumstances, the voice assistant can mistakenly hear

the phrase “Alexa, laugh,” which under its normal

programming would trigger it to chuckle. By late in the

day, the company said it had deployed a software update

to the speaker that fixed the problem.

“We are changing that phrase to be ‘Alexa, can you laugh?’

which is less likely to have false positives, and we are

disabling the short utterance ‘Alexa, laugh,’” a spokeswoman

said in a statement. The company is also changing the

assistant’s response to the prompt from simply laughter to

“Sure, I can laugh,” followed by laughter, Amazon said.

The Next Social Network?

We plug into it with our closest friends, dance to it with

complete strangers and discuss it among our newest

acquaintances. There’s no doubt about it: Music is a

deeply powerful connection point for humans.

Nielsen found that on average, Americans spend more

than 32 hours per weeklistening to tunes. And by mid-2017,

they had already requested 184 billion streams via on-

demand music streaming platforms such as Apple Music

and Spotify, a 62 percent increase from the same mid-year

mark in 2016.

Music platforms are poised to be the next social media

frontier. With 159 million users (and counting), Spotify

has already accomplished the user growth that sinks so

many aspiring social networks. Now, social marketers just

need to capitalize on it.

In the age of mixtapes, music lovers wanted to know what

their best friends were listening to. Today, they want to

connect with their favorite influencers and brands in the

same way. By treating music streaming as a new type of

social network, brands can connect with consumers on a

deeper level and inspire stronger loyalty among fans.

Apple Headphones

Apple’s AirPods earphones have been a surprise hit.

Now, the company is planning a push into the high end

Of the market.

The Cupertino, California-based technology giant is

working on noise-canceling, over-ear headphones that

rival headsets from market leaders like Bose and even

the company’s own Beats by Dre brand, according to

people familiar with the product’s development. The

company plans to launch the headphones as early as

the end of this year, but has faced development

challenges that might push back the release, the people

Said.

Work on the Apple headset has been on-and-off over

the past year. The company encountered similar

problems with the HomePod during its development,

including multiple redesigns, according to the people.

It’s possible Apple will redesign the headphones again

before launch, or scrap the project altogether, they

warned, asking not to be identified discussing private

development work.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

The latest plans call for headphones targeting the

high-end of the market, replicating Apple’s approach

with the $349 HomePod speaker, released earlier this

year. In addition to noise-canceling capabilities, Apple

plans to include similar wireless pairing functionality to

the AirPods, according to the people familiar with the

product’s development.

Ad-supported Media

Even as consumer time spent with media continues

to expand -- inching up 0.3% last year -- the

percentage of time consumers spend with ad-supported

media continues to decline, according to the 2018

edition of an annual report tracking and forecasting

consumer media usage.

The study, which was previewed by Research Intelligencer,

comes as a major industry futurist -- Publicis’ Rishad

Tobaccowala -- predicts that ad-supported media exposure

is about to experience a cliff effect, declining as much

as 30% over the next five years as consumers shift their

attention to non-ad-supported media.

The good news is that the total amount of time

Americans spent consuming media rose to 70.7

hours per week last year. The bad news for Madison

Avenue is that the share of time spent with ad-supported

media fell to 44.4%, its lowest point ever.

The report, published by PQ Media, projects that ad-

supported media’s share of consumer time will fall to

42.5% by 2021, as consumers shift more of their time

and attention to media that has little or no advertising in

it -- mainly subscription services for consuming video,

audio and other forms of media.

August Doorsense

Google Assistant-enabled devices now support

August DoorSense, the smart lock company’s

smart integrated sensor. Now if a user has

DoorSense installed, they can check with Google

Assistant whether their door is closed and locked.

Users can now use voice commands with the

August Smart Lock and Smart Lock Pro through

the Google Assistant on select Android devices,

the Google Assistant app on iOS, Google Home,

and other wearables. To enable it, their August Lock

must be connected to Wi-Fi through an August

Connect Wi-Fi Bridge or an August Doorbell Camera.

Previously, users would have to include “Ask August”

in their requests to lock their front door or check if the

door was locked — the language has now been

simplified to just, “Hey Google, is my door closed?”

To add the lock to your Google Assistant app, tap the

blue drawer icon in the upper right corner. Then, go

into Settings > Home Control, tap the plus sign icon in

the bottom right to add devices and select August Home

and sign in.

Spotify IPO

Streaming service Spotify announced Wednesday

its plan to go public.

The company will begin trading on the New York

Stock Exchange under the ticker name SPOT.

According to the company, shares have traded as

high as $132.50 on private markets, which would

give the company a valuation over $23 billion based

on ordinary shares outstanding as of February 22.

Here's Spotify's F1 filing.

Spotify is the leader in streaming music services

globally, with the company reporting 71 million paying

subscribers and more than 159 million monthly active

listeners (MAUs) as of December 2017. It is available

in 61 countries and territories. Its closest competitor,

AppleMusic, is far behind at 36 million subscribers.

The company reported revenue of $2.37 billion in 2015,

$3.6 billion in 2016 and $4.99 billion in 2017, according

to its F1. (This is based on current euro to dollar conversion

value.) It said paid subscribers are growing at a rate of 46

percent year-over-year, while MAUs are increasing at 29

percent year-over-year.

The company posted a loss of $1.5 billion in 2017, $1

billion of which was from a non-recurring expense due

to convertible notes from a transaction with Tencent in

December 2017. It had an operating loss of $461.3 million

last year, and $425.9 million in 2016.

The company faces significant challenges to its business

model, including risk from fluctuating and unpredictable

royalty rates it pays to music labels, publishers, and songwriters.

"We set out to reimagine the music industry and to provide

a better way for both artists and consumers to benefit from

the digital transformation of the music industry," the company

said in its filing. "Spotify was founded on the belief that music

is universal and that streaming is a more robust and seamless

access model that benefits both artists and music fans."

Spotify's initial offering of shares will not be underwritten,

meaning there is no set price set by underwriters which

will inform opening trades on the New York Stock

Exchange. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Allen &

Company are advising Spotify on the offering.

Amazon Buys Ring

With crushing competition looming, Ring, the

home security device company that has had

a near-monopoly on the market for video doorbells,

is selling itself to Amazon for a reported $1.1 billion.

“I’m beyond happy,” said Ring founder Jamie Siminoff

about the deal, “incredibly so.”

Siminoff declined to elaborate before the transaction

officially closes. But Amazon is expected to treat Ring

as it has similar acquisitions like Zappos and Audible,

integrating some elements of Ring with other Amazon-

owned products like its virtual digital assistant, Alexa,

which already transmits commands to Ring’s products.

The Seattle giant will mostly allow Ring to operate

independently, according to a Ring spokesperson.

Siminoff will stay on as CEO of Santa Monica-based Ring.

The deal will not make Siminoff, 41, a billionaire. Ring has

burned through multiple financing rounds, bringing its

investment capital to $209 million and diluting Siminoff’s

ownership stake to 10%. The Amazon deal voids a $300

million venture round Siminoff was set to close in March,

which would have valued the company at $1 billion.

The deal marks a handsome payday for Shaquille O’Neal,

Ring’s pitchman, who struck an agreement in 2016 for an

equity stake in the company in exchange for his

appearances alongside Siminoff in Ring’s TV and online

Commercials.

As recently as last year, Ring had a 97% share of U.S.

video doorbell sales, according to market research firm

NPD Group. The devices let users see video broadcast

through a tiny camera in the doorbell, using an app on

their phone. But this year, a half-dozen copycat doorbells

are hitting the market, some introduced by legacy security

companies like ADT and others by brands owned by

Google and Amazon. In December, Amazon bought Blink,

a maker of wireless home security cameras, and was

planning to introduce a $99 video doorbell in the coming

months, undercutting Ring’s lowest-priced doorbell by $80.