You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’, first recorded in 1964, was a musical disruptor:
exemplified Phil Spector’s famous “Wall of Sound” production
had countless well-known performers, including a young Cher, on the track
defied radio standards at the time, which only played songs 3 minutes or less, prompting Phil Spector to write “3:05” on the record when in fact it was 3:45
changing tempos mid-song left many confused
cover versions defined numerous careers of later artists
The song dominated radio as the most-played song for 22 years.
And then what happened?
A song about spying came along and kicked it out of the top spot, for good.
Just prior to the pandemic, Alexa was beginning to reach saturation.
The best illustration of this, in my opinion, was the complete failure of the Facebook Portal, a device trading almost entirely on having Alexa built into it.
During the pandemic, the privacy concerns that had begun to bubble up about Big Tech in general, and Amazon’s Alexa specifically, were silenced.
The best illustration of this, in my opinion, was the complete turnaround of the Facebook Portal, suddenly selling out everywhere.
But that was then, and Amazon has not only endured its founding CEO departing, and all of the motivation and internal alignment you’d expect to leave with him, but is also operating in what is becoming an actively hostile environment toward Big Tech.
No better way to illustrate this than the tweets of Tim O’Reilly, well known publishing and technology entrepreneur behind O’Reilly Media.
Years ago, Alexa was a frequent and positive topic of conversation:
But all of that was then. What about now?
Amazon Alexa has been recommending users subscribe to Amazon Music for, at bare minimum, 5 years.
I know because it did it to me, a very long time ago. (I actually took the recommendation, and subscribed!)
But what did Tim think about Alexa playing music, back in 2016?
So Alexa playing music that was never specifically asked for back in 2016 was cool, but venturing off the beaten path in 2022 isn’t.
Speaking of other concepts that would likely not be considered cool on social media anymore:
So the point of this Twitter archaeological dig is simply to point out how the politics of today are moving against Amazon and Alexa (and to a very similar extent, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook).
There’s simply no way these companies can add enough new utility and functionality to ever get back on the right side of the increasingly-cynical public.
This is the challenge confronting these Big Tech companies - overcoming the shifting sentiment against them, in favor of smaller and more independent players where privacy and security can be better protected.
In other words: get ready for a lot of acquisitions of smaller, independent companies by these larger Big Tech behemoths as they try to keep up.
We have brought all of our smaller voice/AI events under one roof, as everything now will take place at Project Voice 2023 next April.
a CX event on site called The Voice of Customer Service
a healthcare event on site called The Voice of Healthcare Summit
a banking event on site called The Voice of Money
a hospitality event on site called The Voice of Hospitality
and many others, all in Chattanooga beginning next April.
Each of these events-within-the-event will have between 100-200 attendees each, and Project Voice 2023 will have approximately 2,500 across the entire week’s worth of programming.
For registration and more information, go here, and for sponsorship or exhibition information, email info@projectvoice.ai. And far from being too early, the timing is right as the first additions to the 2023 program are coming this week, as we’re getting pushed by companies wanting to get as many events on the calendar as possible.