MXP4 was pleased to be part of this year’s Digital Hollywood Spring event, with CEO Albin Serviant joining the session, “Music Apps for SmartPhones, Tablets & Social Media – Reaching Millions – Monetization.”

Panelists included some of the heaviest hitters and cutting-edge innovators shaping the future of the music industry, with representatives of Napster, Dada Entertainment (creators of the new cloud-based music service Play.me), Gridmob (developers of direct-to-consumer mobile music solutions), CyKiK (music and video producer), Bungalo Records, BlueHaze (web and mobile social network for concert fans) and New Medici (media, entertainment and lifestyle branding across digital and traditional platforms).

The panelists unanimously agreed that today’s entertainment consumers want interactivity – the shift to connected/broadband TV perfectly illustrates the growing demand for interactivity from all screens. The challenge for the music industry is not just to meet this expectation, but also to effectively work with sales strategy and the marketing industry to realize the full monetization potential.

Panelists agreed that people are more ready to pay for a user experience than they are for just mobile access. The new demand for interactivity goes beyond just smartphones, tables and social media – it’s about all screens, EVERYWHERE. For the past decade we’ve seen music apps working successfully on PCs. Now we’re seeing more successful applications available on connected TVs (check out our blog post to see video of the MXP4 platform in action on TV).

MXP4 strives to extend the fully-immersive experience of a well-produced album, adding that critical, in-demand element of interactivity. Instead of just listening to the music, we give fans the ability to actually play with the music. No longer just “consumers,” fans can create remixes and mashups, they can enjoy automatic personalization, and they can have fun with a karaoke-like experience (not just with the voice, either, but also with the instruments). Of course, they can also connect with other fans and even the artist through this album like experience on the app.

So it’s agreed that interactivity is a key part of music 2.0, but where are the monetization opportunities? At MXP4, we see them everywhere. First, the apps themselves can be a premium experience, as we’ve shown with our iPhone music apps. Second, interactive music presents a high level of engagement with the artist, and that trust in the artist’s brand can then be leveraged by other brands. For example, MXP4 created an interactive music applications for Air France (promoting the Air France Music onboard service with The Phoenix).

In short, MXP4 helps brands leverage the high level of engagement and trust that occurs during the music listening experience. By doing so in an interactive music app, consumers are ready not only to inclined to be more engaged, but are also more likely to take action (such as clicking through to purchase).

MXP4’s view is that interactive music provides a huge opportunity to brands, advertisers, media portals, mobile applications, music distribution platforms and third-party music formats, but realizing this potential requires interactive music be accessible everywhere. We want consumers to always have the chance to play with music. That’s why we recently announced our MXP4 Everywhere strategy to make our technology available for all other formats, services and apps. While interactivity is necessary component of a winning strategy for the music industry, it must be very accessible across platforms and on all screens in order to realize the full range of monetization opportunities.