Lyricfind CEO Darryl Ballantyne; Armonia CEO Virginie Berger; Musimap CEO Vincent Favrat; Amazon director of content acquisition Rishi Mirchandani; and Qobuz CMO Malcolm Ouzeri took part in a discussion moderated by consultant Ted Cohen.

Amazon’s Echo and its Alexa voice assistant loomed large. “In my house right now I’ve got two young daughters, and they run around our house talking to Alexa all the time, saying ‘play music’. It’s all they’re ever going to know,” said Mirchandani.

Ballantyne was blunt about the thought process behind licensing new music startups. “If we believe in what they’re doing and their model, we’re much less likely to ask for money up front, or different terms. We want to see that succeed,” he said. “If we don’t believe in it, if we don’t think it’s a sustainable model: we’ll still license it, but that’s when we’re going to want a cheque upfront. We’re either going to want a quality service or a quality cheque!