At the Media Money Makers session, “Who’s Really Watching What and How?” president of research at NBC Universal, Alan Wurtzel discussed five consumer-centric trends that people ignore at their peril.

1. Dynamic Pace of Change – Growth of media technologies outpaces our ability to adapt. He called the Vancouver Olympics a $2 billion experiment, for which lessons learned were wiped out two months later when the iPad was released.

2. Consumers Still Love TV – Assuming TV is “over” is a huge mistake. People spend 51% with TV, 25% with the Internet, 15% with radio(!), 4% reading newspapers, 2% with magazines, and 3% with mobile sources. People who watched the Vancouver Olympics online watched twice as much TV Olympics as people who didn’t watch on the Internet. For “30 Rock,” the NBC show with the greatest Internet following: 78% watch it via live TV, 12% play it back from their DVR, and only 10% watch it online. To put social media in perspective, Facebook has 151 million unique users per month, but the four broadcast networks gather 275 million unique viewers per month.

3. Fragmentation – It has become much more difficult to gather people. Nielsen now gathers information and reports ratings for 1035 channels. In 1995 the average US consumer had 41 channels available and viewed 10.4 channels. In 2008, the average US consumer had 130 channels available yet only viewed 18 of them.

4. AlphaBoomer Phenomenon – There are 3 transformative changes today, 1) the digital revolution, 2) rise of  the Hispanic market, and 3) Boomers. Boomers (45-64 years old) are 33% of the population and they have money, yet they are invisible to marketers. The perception is that AlphaBoomers are technophobes, but the reality is that they embrace technology. They spend 49% more for online content than Gen Y!  75% of Boomers use technology to keep in touch with friends and family. 46% visit social websites monthly.

5. Time for a Reality Check – Conventional wisdom, media, and bad research can all be misleading. For example, Nielsen studied cord-cutting: 93% of people retained their existing service over the last year, 5% swapped cords (switched cable or satellite providers), and 1% were true cord cutters. Understand what is really going on. We generate notions of the general populations based on our circle of acquaintances. 77% of US teens and young adults don’t have a Twitter account.  60% of teens stop using Twitter after a month.

A panel of music and tech experts gathered today at a Tech Policy Central event entitled, “Digital Music in the Digital Age: What Works, What Doesn’t Work, and Where Do We Go?”

There were several areas of consensus: while musicians must handle their own business affairs now more than ever, there is enormous potential for creative approaches. From Amanda Palmer’s famous Twitter following to services like TuneCore, there now exist unprecedented and myriad ways by which artists can promote their careers and manage their music. Second, forms of curation and tastemaking are more important than ever. Mixtapes, playlists, and trusted recommendation systems (think Facebook apps) will be a big part of the future.

It wasn’t all roses.  Panelist Samantha Murphy lamented that large rights organizations like SoundExchange and Harry Fox don’t serve small artists, which Colin Rushing of SX disputed. He reported that SX pays out an average of $2,800 per artist and $14,000 per rightsholder annually, and pays over 10,000 different entities each quarter. While it’s unclear just how many artists can make a living combining new online business models with traditional revenue streams like SX, it’s clear that more artists are doing that today than ever before.

Several panelists argued with passion that giving music out for free actually functions to stimulate sales: “Free is the New Black,” declared Martin Atkins of TourSmart.

Sadly, the one thing on everyone’s mind is as unclear as ever: when will the subscription service Spotify make it to America? The excitement about Spotify is palpable. One panelist indicated that, in Sweden, Spotify now brings in more revenue for Sony and Universal than iTunes. Nevertheless, it’s not clear when this Holy Grail of subscription services will arrive – if ever.