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music

The Way Things Were

February 12, 2011 11:37:21.991

In case anyone thinks that the music piracy argument is new - not so much. Before iPods and CDs, there was the mix tape:

I guarantee I am not the only one with a couple of tapes marked "Road Tunes" for playing while cruising the highway. For a while I was in the habit of buying an LP, listening to it a couple of times, and then putting the tracks onto a tape in an order I found pleasing. You may roll your eyes now, I don't care.

For me, it was less for road trips and more for college parties - how else could I ensure that a Blue Oyster Cut track or two made it into the soundtrack?

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posted by James Robertson

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Living in the Past

December 28, 2010 16:09:03.000

In a long article about the success of Spotify in Europe, we find out why it's not available in the US - it's due to the lack of sense the labels have:

None of the major labels would talk to Wired about Spotify, but several have made their opinions known. “Free streaming services are clearly not net positive for the industry,” said Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. during a February conference call to discuss his company’s quarterly earnings, “and as far as Warner Music is concerned, it will not be licensed. So, this sort of ‘get all the music you want for free and then maybe we can—with a few bells and whistles—move you to a premium price’ strategy is not the kind of approach to business that we will be supporting in the future.”

What Bronfman doesn't realize is that he's living in the world now. People are sharing music over torrents and skype, never mind the "sneaker net" pastime of burning a CD. He can either get on board with a legitimate business and have a stake in that future, or he can fade off into the distance. At the moment, he's chosen to fade off.

The big problem is one you see a lot in software businesses being confronted with free, open source competitors - the first reactions are to clamp down harder and complain about the unfairness of it all. Here's the thing though: evolving business models aren't about fairness, they're about the way things are. Get on the bus, stay off the bus - either way, it's heading out. With the net's existence, it's going to remain easy to pass music (and other software, for that matter) around. You simply have to account for that fact in your business model.

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posted by James Robertson

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Recognizing Reality

November 16, 2010 6:02:09.382

Charles Miller sums up the whole "The Beatles are on iTunes" thing:

What's being proved today? It's two years since iTunes overtook Walmart as the number one music retailer in the USA, physical or digital. Apple, Amazon and their competitors don't need anybody to reassure them that they're "it", they know already. The Beatles signing up with iTunes might be a personal milestone for Steve Jobs, but outside Apple, even for a huge fan of the group such as myself, it's a bit meh.

I guess that leaves Prince as the sole major name relic out there....

posted by James Robertson

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Hate for iTunes?

September 4, 2010 9:35:57.402

I'm sure that underneath the hood, iTunes is a mess - any application as old as iTunes, with the number of features that have been added over time, is highly unlikely to be clean. Having said that, I'm always a bit confused by this kind of thing:

The ugly duckling of the iFamily, this program is hard to understand, hard to use, inelegant, and ill-behaved—in short, the very opposite of most other Apple products. I dread booting it up every day, yet I can’t sidestep it.

Hmm. I rarely restart iTunes - for the most part, it sits on my iMac, not bothering anyone, sharing music out to my home network. When I do have to fire it up, I don't notice it taking any longer to start than (insert any browser here).

As to the UI? Well, I'm sure a UI expert could riff on it, but it seems easy enough to navigate to me. I've never had an issue pondering the differences between the music. podcast, and video displays, for instance.

It's a fairly common meme though, the "iTunes sucks" thing. LIke a said, I'm sure that the developers responsible for it would like to start fresh - based on the age and feature set alone. But from the standpoint of the end user, I just don't see the problem. The biggest issue I have with iTunes isn't really with iTunes itself, it's with the need to do direct connection synching. At the very least, I should be able to synch wirelessly.

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posted by James Robertson

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Have They Heard of Pandora?

August 27, 2010 15:26:13.000

The way music execs blame everything on file sharing, you would think that they had never heard of legal streaming services like Pandora. I think sites like that explain the chart (follow the link) that shows a huge decline in album sales much, much better than file sharing:

Music industry execs blame the dropping sales numbers on illegal downloads. Exactly what percent of music downloads are illegal is difficult to calculate, but estimates range as high as 20 illegal downloads for every legal download. As for the total cost of illegal downloads, it depends on who you ask.

I was driving from Orlando to my parent's house yesterday, and I had Pandora on the whole time. Not iTunes; not FM radio; not talk radio. That's what's killing sales. You can create a playlist that keys off a song (or band, or genre...) you like, and then just have the music play. No need to save anything, or buy anything, or worry about anything.

As I've said before on this blog - No one is entitled to a business model....

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posted by James Robertson

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Marketing to A Past Decade

August 18, 2010 8:23:00.598

Yes, I'm sure this would get me to listen to radio more:

In a bid to revive the FM Radio, broadcasters and music labels have appealed to the US Congress to force manufacturers to build FM receivers into all smartphones and portable devices.

My iPhone is always using one radio (3G), and often a second (WiFi). When I'm driving I listen to Pandora or iTunes. Mandating an FM radio just isn't going to get me to return to it.

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posted by James Robertson

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Prince Tells Kids to Get Off His Lawn

July 6, 2010 11:58:30.767

Prince has crossed over from being a hip musician to being that crotchety old guy who tells those damn kids to stay off his lawn:

He went on to say: “The internet’s like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated.
Prince also criticised the advent of gadgets and computers: “All these computers and digital gadgets are no good.

I'll be sure to unearth my quadrophonic stereo and unused CD player to listen to his newest stuff.... not.

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posted by James Robertson

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Thom Yorke Was Right

June 12, 2010 22:17:57.676

TechDirt runs the numbers, and demonstrates exactly why the RIAA is so desperate. Like SCO, all they think they have left is lawsuits.

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posted by James Robertson

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Google Music

June 4, 2010 18:21:17.446

Looks like Apple is about to have real competition in the music - Google:

At Google I/O a few weeks ago, Google teased the audience with a glimpse of a web-based iTunes competitor that would be a new section of the Android Market. Details were sparse during that time, but we may have found the name of the service through a new logo that is hosted on Google’s domain: Google Music [ed: The url for that graphic 404's now].

Apple's going to have to get with the program - no more tethered only synching for iPads, Touches, and iPhones. Or, they can get left behind...

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posted by James Robertson

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Google Jumping Ahead in Music?

May 20, 2010 16:17:55.989

Google is making music acquisition easier than Apple is - not only are they doing device based music downloads (Apple does that) - they also synch your computer and device over the net (Apple still requires tethering). If Android gets a bit easier to use, Apple will have to start playing catch up fast...

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posted by James Robertson

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