Takeaways from S.F. Music Tech Summit 2009

The annual San Francisco Music Tech Summit collects experts and entrepreneurs from around the music industry to discuss technological trends and hurdles.
This photograph was taken at a panel on music recommendation services, moderated by Paul Lamere of The Echo Nest. Pictured here from left to right are: Paul Lamere; James Miao (thesixtyone.com); Alex Loscos (BMAT); Stephen White (Gracenote); and Michael Papish (MediaUnbound). With the exception of James Miao, the perspectives on this panel came from people who provide the music recommendation back-end for companies such as eMusic and Rhapsody.
Aside from learning about the deep, tangled intricacies analyzing large databases of music and providing relevant recommendations, I came away with two great takeaways. The first: thesixtyone.com is a great way to discover new music (think Digg for music). Second: the next hurdle for intelligent music recommendation services is user context--awareness of the user's geographic location, the delivery device (cell phone, computer, PC), and the intent (frat party, date night, background music).