"Are you going to want to pay two or three years worth of subscription fees and end up with nothing?"
If the price is right then I won't be too bothered. A couple of years ago I would buy a cd a week, thats £500/year. Plus in total I owned about 600 cds.
If I could have subscription service that gives me access to a virtually unlimited back catalogue, for a fee of say £5 or even £10/month then financially I am way way ahead and have a greater music choice. If the subscription site is backed by a company thats not going to go broke any time soon, then for me a subscription site is absolutely the answer. (I currently pay last.fm £1.50/month for such a service and have stopped buying cds)
The problem is that for the great unwashed masses who bought drm'd ipods - it is ingrained into them that you "buy" a track or CD, which you then "own" and can do with as you wish. (that is of course if they're not downloading their music). I don't think the prevailing buy & own paradigm is going to change for quite a while.
How much of the windows bloat is due to having to be backwards compatible and all the legacy issues that that entails? Wouldn't it be better to start afresh and code up something fast and secure? If a user wanted to be compatible to Windows Me and prior, they could just install some sort of service pack.....
Don't like macs, apple or Steve Jobs, but I have to admit the itouch looks real nice. But like the original ipod, I'm going to wait until someone does it better, and without the whole itunes/drm crap.
There was a post on techcrunch about this
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/09/blockbuster-d esperate-to-do-something-buys-a-loser/
The summary:
"But Movielink certainly isn't going to be a silver bullet for Blockbuster. We looked at all of the players in Movielink's space last October. Their competitors include, besides Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, CinemaNow and Guba (and, let's be honest, BitTorrent). Movielink has a very deep library of movies, but they are DRM'd to the hilt and the studios force them to price downloads at higher-than-dvd prices.
Blockbuster's salad days ended in 2002, and the stock has slid steadily since then. It is no longer profitable. There are just too many options for consumers who want to watch movies at home. The company's biggest asset, and biggest problem, are the long term leases it has on its 9,000 retail stores. It needs to defocus on Netflix and think about how to use those stores to its advantage. Otherwise, its long term prognosis is clear - deadpool."
1. Substitution with mp3 sales
2. Peer to Peer sharing
3. Baby Boomers already have their music on cd. (ie Beatles aren't releasing new music anytime soon)
4. Change in teen/uni student social dynamics - less time spent going to concerts, more time spent gaming. on the internet & watching/buying DVDs
5. Poor investment by music labels in new acts
Slashdot Mirror
ever been to India & seen the most popular activity for young boys? - kite flying.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharat/778528134/
"Are you going to want to pay two or three years worth of subscription fees and end up with nothing?" If the price is right then I won't be too bothered. A couple of years ago I would buy a cd a week, thats £500/year. Plus in total I owned about 600 cds. If I could have subscription service that gives me access to a virtually unlimited back catalogue, for a fee of say £5 or even £10/month then financially I am way way ahead and have a greater music choice. If the subscription site is backed by a company thats not going to go broke any time soon, then for me a subscription site is absolutely the answer. (I currently pay last.fm £1.50/month for such a service and have stopped buying cds) The problem is that for the great unwashed masses who bought drm'd ipods - it is ingrained into them that you "buy" a track or CD, which you then "own" and can do with as you wish. (that is of course if they're not downloading their music). I don't think the prevailing buy & own paradigm is going to change for quite a while.
How much of the windows bloat is due to having to be backwards compatible and all the legacy issues that that entails? Wouldn't it be better to start afresh and code up something fast and secure? If a user wanted to be compatible to Windows Me and prior, they could just install some sort of service pack.....
on a somewhat related note and speaking of the Chaser, check out this link http://www.shoutfile.com/v/gSfSsCpR/Why_People_Believe_Americans_Are_Stupid . very funny
in the UK? - £12 Billion for a computerised NHS medical records system and its still not finished! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Programme_for_IT
> while speaking a foreign language there are more english speakers in India than there are in the US
Don't like macs, apple or Steve Jobs, but I have to admit the itouch looks real nice. But like the original ipod, I'm going to wait until someone does it better, and without the whole itunes/drm crap.
The big deal is the step taken by the government to force ISPs to provide filtering. Unheard of so far in a western democracy.
There was a post on techcrunch about this http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/09/blockbuster-d esperate-to-do-something-buys-a-loser/
The summary:
"But Movielink certainly isn't going to be a silver bullet for Blockbuster. We looked at all of the players in Movielink's space last October. Their competitors include, besides Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, CinemaNow and Guba (and, let's be honest, BitTorrent). Movielink has a very deep library of movies, but they are DRM'd to the hilt and the studios force them to price downloads at higher-than-dvd prices.
Blockbuster's salad days ended in 2002, and the stock has slid steadily since then. It is no longer profitable. There are just too many options for consumers who want to watch movies at home. The company's biggest asset, and biggest problem, are the long term leases it has on its 9,000 retail stores. It needs to defocus on Netflix and think about how to use those stores to its advantage. Otherwise, its long term prognosis is clear - deadpool."
1. Substitution with mp3 sales 2. Peer to Peer sharing 3. Baby Boomers already have their music on cd. (ie Beatles aren't releasing new music anytime soon) 4. Change in teen/uni student social dynamics - less time spent going to concerts, more time spent gaming. on the internet & watching/buying DVDs 5. Poor investment by music labels in new acts