not sure how this is different from any number of countless other free streaming music resources on the internet...
i think the bigger question is, do people want streaming of someone elses choice or do they want unlimited choice of their own?
we may all jump quickly to the conclusion that we'd like 100% choice all of the time, but there is quite a phemonemon emerging as of late called tivo-itis, where so many are observed getting stuck in ruts at their own content programming ineptitudes and gleefully leap back to pre-programmed channels
very interesting topic and one that will certainly continue to impact media markets as VOD and other viewer choice options emerge and are able to compete with pure pre-programmed options
As someone who has worked in and observed the media industry for a while, I have to once again where a lot of these thoughts fall short
1) People like watching stuff on their television while sitting on their couch. I mean, it's great to talk about all sorts of computer tech being integrated into this and that but at the end of the day, I don't want my darn TV to bluescreen during the superbowl and i'm a heck of a lot more accepting and tolerant of this type of nonsense than most people are
2) Piracy is a massive issue and will continue to be so long as the studios follow the "ain't broke don't fix" attitude. The moment a tech window opens up, if media isn't delivered to the people in a reasonable format, people will make do. Ie., I won't pay $6 for a quality video on my PC, but if you can deliver me a watchable video on my PC right now for free, hrmmm....
3) There is a huge dilemma facing all the studios and tech companies as they contemplate the build out of structures to support these types of technologies. I hope Verizon picks up and does some crazy 30 mbps + connection, but at the end of the day, these things take YEARS and YEARS to recoup costs on and without sharing some of that cost with the studios (who benefit most from appropriately developed tech platforms), these rollouts will be MUCH slower than anticipated.
this isn't an awful idea. here you are, a massive corporation, no different than the film industry that I work in, and you face a huge emerging market. you can either toss your hands up in the air knowing that there is no way on God's green earth that someone's going to pay the equivalent of US$300 for your OS (or US$20 for your latest DVD or US$15 for your latest CD....) or come up with an alternative.
So what do you do?
1) release the same version for less? that causes absolutely ridiculous import/export issues worldwide among other sorts of "discriminatory business practice issues"
2) release a dummed down version that may function reasonably well -- especially in a world where the latest and greatest computers aren't that easy to come by anyway.
In so many international territories, unlike the US, hardware is a HUGE issue. Did you know that while cable television and DVD players are in something like 70+% of US homes, even in Europe, they're at roughly 40% or less. Now we move into lower developed Asian countries and these things become even bigger issues. The simple fact is that people don't have the lifestyles and monies to support big expensive American-price-leveled products.
You either accept and ignore piracy as it beats the heck out of you (as it has done for years now to the software and entertainment industries) or you come up with an alternative.
write your congressman, write the MPAA...
unfortunately 90% of these decisions take place at super senior levels behind closed doors of major studios and major regulatory agencies (as do most other decisions that impact our lives... more often than not)
Working for an advisory firm in the ent industry, this is such an incredibly hot topic these days. We're very focused on what's going to happen when (and if) real VOD starts to happen. Once you can actually get 500+ titles at your fingertips, do you stop going to Blockbuster entirely? What happens when those titles are all recordable and perhaps easily swappable over the internet...and i don't mean by the/. user base, I mean by ma' and pa' that could even figure out KaZaaa.
There are massive implications for the entire television advertising market (which is literally on the order of some 50 billion dollars) which is massive compared to theatrical piracy (total box office spend in the US is roughly 8 billion). Further, once you remove the power and interest of advertisers to spend money on television, you essentially remove the ability of television networks to subsidize film programming and therefore reduce the budget levels and (implicit) quality of films shown on television and in theaters.
Although these types of topics have been on the burner for years now, with the lower prices of DVD-R / Tivo devices coupled with emerging VOD networks, this is going to become such a hotbed of activity.
I guess i'll chime in here with my biggest issue with Apple. I am a typical finance/home user. Some photos, some audio, but I live in outlook (heck I need to, my company uses exchange and there's no other way I know of to be sharing calendars and what not given that restriction) and furthermore I live and die with Microsoft Money and Quicken to manage personal finances.
About 3 months ago, I rushed out and spent nearly twice on a powerbook what I normally spend during my annual dell upgrade fest. I brought the beautiful computer home and I found several main issues that would turn off any "try-hard die-hard" mac fan:
1) there is no outlook. there is nothing close to outlook. i couldn't share calendars, i was a corporate outcast. safari does not properly display outlook web access from my exchange host and the 3 other browsers i downloaded failed to do this properly as well
2) the version of office is one step behind. frankly speaking, when all my colleagues are buzzing it up on office xp with colored tabs and all the Excel yahoo features, I'm stuck 3 years ago
3) there is no Microsoft Money, the MAC version of Quicken does NOT download from everywhere the PC version does, and i'm left typing in all my stock quotes by hand.
look, i tried as much as the next guy to get this to work, but these are huge dealbreaker issues that will face any semi-sophisticated wanna-be mac advocate. i wish that i had been able to figure out a solution, but it just plain didn't work out. i can't see any real conversion of business users until this works itself out and i see business use as a huge route into the home.
Good luck apple
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not sure how this is different from any number of countless other free streaming music resources on the internet... i think the bigger question is, do people want streaming of someone elses choice or do they want unlimited choice of their own? we may all jump quickly to the conclusion that we'd like 100% choice all of the time, but there is quite a phemonemon emerging as of late called tivo-itis, where so many are observed getting stuck in ruts at their own content programming ineptitudes and gleefully leap back to pre-programmed channels very interesting topic and one that will certainly continue to impact media markets as VOD and other viewer choice options emerge and are able to compete with pure pre-programmed options
As someone who has worked in and observed the media industry for a while, I have to once again where a lot of these thoughts fall short
1) People like watching stuff on their television while sitting on their couch. I mean, it's great to talk about all sorts of computer tech being integrated into this and that but at the end of the day, I don't want my darn TV to bluescreen during the superbowl and i'm a heck of a lot more accepting and tolerant of this type of nonsense than most people are
2) Piracy is a massive issue and will continue to be so long as the studios follow the "ain't broke don't fix" attitude. The moment a tech window opens up, if media isn't delivered to the people in a reasonable format, people will make do. Ie., I won't pay $6 for a quality video on my PC, but if you can deliver me a watchable video on my PC right now for free, hrmmm....
3) There is a huge dilemma facing all the studios and tech companies as they contemplate the build out of structures to support these types of technologies. I hope Verizon picks up and does some crazy 30 mbps + connection, but at the end of the day, these things take YEARS and YEARS to recoup costs on and without sharing some of that cost with the studios (who benefit most from appropriately developed tech platforms), these rollouts will be MUCH slower than anticipated.
this isn't an awful idea. here you are, a massive corporation, no different than the film industry that I work in, and you face a huge emerging market. you can either toss your hands up in the air knowing that there is no way on God's green earth that someone's going to pay the equivalent of US$300 for your OS (or US$20 for your latest DVD or US$15 for your latest CD ....) or come up with an alternative.
So what do you do?
1) release the same version for less? that causes absolutely ridiculous import/export issues worldwide among other sorts of "discriminatory business practice issues"
2) release a dummed down version that may function reasonably well -- especially in a world where the latest and greatest computers aren't that easy to come by anyway.
In so many international territories, unlike the US, hardware is a HUGE issue. Did you know that while cable television and DVD players are in something like 70+% of US homes, even in Europe, they're at roughly 40% or less. Now we move into lower developed Asian countries and these things become even bigger issues. The simple fact is that people don't have the lifestyles and monies to support big expensive American-price-leveled products.
You either accept and ignore piracy as it beats the heck out of you (as it has done for years now to the software and entertainment industries) or you come up with an alternative.
write your congressman, write the MPAA... unfortunately 90% of these decisions take place at super senior levels behind closed doors of major studios and major regulatory agencies (as do most other decisions that impact our lives... more often than not)
Working for an advisory firm in the ent industry, this is such an incredibly hot topic these days. We're very focused on what's going to happen when (and if) real VOD starts to happen. Once you can actually get 500+ titles at your fingertips, do you stop going to Blockbuster entirely? What happens when those titles are all recordable and perhaps easily swappable over the internet...and i don't mean by the /. user base, I mean by ma' and pa' that could even figure out KaZaaa.
There are massive implications for the entire television advertising market (which is literally on the order of some 50 billion dollars) which is massive compared to theatrical piracy (total box office spend in the US is roughly 8 billion). Further, once you remove the power and interest of advertisers to spend money on television, you essentially remove the ability of television networks to subsidize film programming and therefore reduce the budget levels and (implicit) quality of films shown on television and in theaters.
Although these types of topics have been on the burner for years now, with the lower prices of DVD-R / Tivo devices coupled with emerging VOD networks, this is going to become such a hotbed of activity.
i wonder if the ladies will respond to his new wealth as well as they do to lottery owners... oooh... 10,000 songs?
I guess i'll chime in here with my biggest issue with Apple. I am a typical finance/home user. Some photos, some audio, but I live in outlook (heck I need to, my company uses exchange and there's no other way I know of to be sharing calendars and what not given that restriction) and furthermore I live and die with Microsoft Money and Quicken to manage personal finances. About 3 months ago, I rushed out and spent nearly twice on a powerbook what I normally spend during my annual dell upgrade fest. I brought the beautiful computer home and I found several main issues that would turn off any "try-hard die-hard" mac fan: 1) there is no outlook. there is nothing close to outlook. i couldn't share calendars, i was a corporate outcast. safari does not properly display outlook web access from my exchange host and the 3 other browsers i downloaded failed to do this properly as well 2) the version of office is one step behind. frankly speaking, when all my colleagues are buzzing it up on office xp with colored tabs and all the Excel yahoo features, I'm stuck 3 years ago 3) there is no Microsoft Money, the MAC version of Quicken does NOT download from everywhere the PC version does, and i'm left typing in all my stock quotes by hand. look, i tried as much as the next guy to get this to work, but these are huge dealbreaker issues that will face any semi-sophisticated wanna-be mac advocate. i wish that i had been able to figure out a solution, but it just plain didn't work out. i can't see any real conversion of business users until this works itself out and i see business use as a huge route into the home. Good luck apple