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There were plenty of people who trashed the Microsoft Zune back when it was released, which I mistakenly called a Homerun for Microsoft back in September of 2006.  I was planning on buying one but have since realized that the first generation player from Microsoft is lacking in many areas and choose to stick to Creative and just upgraded to a Creative Zen W. 

You see I really thought Microsoft had figured it out when I saw comments from Zune’s Senior Director of Project Management (Scott Erickson) on MTV news when he said and I quote,  "If it was ripped from a CD in your personal collection, you can import all of that including your playlists, album art, ratings and play counts."  Unfortunately it turned out that Senior Director Scott Erickson did not know his own product (which seems like not knowing your ass from a hole in the ground to me) and DRM is applied to any and all music on the Zune not just what was purchased from the Zune Marketplace so that really crushed a lot of the wow factor of the sharing feature on the Zune.

When I finally got to handle a Zune finally and I had to admit it is a well made unit, great graphics, great feel, easy to use and as a device alone I like it better then the iPod but much about it and the Marketplace to me is still a flop!

Yet this is not another slam on Zune as there is enough of that was done a long time ago.  Zune and its strict DRMs are just another symptom of the real problems with the entire music industry and all the services from iTunes to Zune Marketplace and others.  This article is meant to be about the industry as a whole and I want to be proactive so rather then just telling you what I think is wrong with the model I will try to also outline what I think is the right way to build a music downloading service and family of players. 

As I do this I am coming at it from three perspectives. 

• One, a user of portable players and downloadable music.
• Two, an Internet marketer that knows what works online and understands industry trends and what Web2.0 really means.  
• Third, from the view of the service provider and how the provider and music industry could make money. 

My belief is users complain about services with no thought that the providers need to make money, the providers think far more about money then the users and most executives certainly don’t know what Web2.0 is other then an excuse to blow some venture capital money and throw some 1999 style parties.

Before I go on let me be totally honest with you about where I get my music at the present time.  About half is from CDs I own that I have been buying since 1988 the other half is mostly from Limewire where I do what industry people would call “stealing music”.  I am not alone I have it from very good sources that the number one service accessed from just about every major University in the U.S. today is Limewire and it has been almost since the day Napster was slapped down and forced to charge for music.

I do still buy CDs of some artists, some I want to support like the new Chris Daughtry CD and others where I really want the entire album and not just one or two songs.  I want the reader to also understand that I would actually prefer to buy music if a service that respected my rights as the owner of the content I just paid for existed. 

I have about 8 PCs in my house and we own over a half dozen portable players (including yes, gasp a 30GB iPod) and even an old fashioned CD player that holds 60 plus CDs.  Our truck has a CD player and our cool new VW Jetta has a 6-disk changer that plays both audio disks and mp3 disks.

When I buy a song (and no I don’t F’ing “rent” music) I want to be able to move it to any device I want it on so I can play it the way I want to, as I want to, how I want to and for as long as I want to.  I don’t want DRM on my music, I don’t want to not be able to rip it to a CD as the player in our truck only plays regular music CD’s and I also like to still make CD’s for my wife, yea I am an old sap romantic.  I don't use Limewire because I am too cheap to buy music, I use it because it best serves my wants as a person that listens to music.  There are millions of people just like me out there, make no mistake about it.  

I also feel that we should be paying about half or less for music in soft copy not just as much or even 90% of the CD price as most music works out from Apple, Microsoft and the other services.  Damn it we spent all those years from the dawn of vinyl records all the way through the golden age of the CD and what did the music industry claim was the reason for what we called the “high cost of CDs”?  The industry claimed it was manufacturing and packaging and shipping driving up the cost, which remained the standard answer all the way up until the iPod age.  

Funny how that old excuse is just not heard any more, now they have new reasons (excuses) and guilt us with sob stories about the “poor artists”.  Anyone with any industry knowledge knows the artists make very little on the album sales and earn most money from touring which they have to fit the bill for and manage mostly for themselves by the way.  Besides from Garth Brooks to the Chili Peppers to old timers like Bachman Turner Overdrive all the artists seem to be doing quite well for themselves.  Well, everyone but the Dixie Chicks, which teaches us the lesson of know your target demographic before you open your mouth in public!

You see unlike many of our youth (which I consider those under 25 or there abouts) I have not grown up with mostly electronic music, CD burners and iPods.  No, I still remember the first tape decks and how the music industry tried to stop them because according to industry fat cats back then, “people recording the radio was going to destroy the music industry”, yes they really said that.  I remember the first dual cassette decks where people could dub one tape to the next and how the music execs forecasted doom and gloom and the very death of music and the same reaction to the first CD burners and then finally when P2P music came out the same cries of doom were uttered.  

The crying of the music executives is an old story and despite how long it has been going on the bigwigs at Sony, Time Warner, etc still have leather walls in their offices and marble floors.  I don’t begrudge them from making the big bucks and officing in downtown Manhattan either, no that is fine with me, I am a capitalist and making money is the American way just don’t sing me a sob story when you eat caviar for lunch, drive a Jag and have LEATHER WALLS! 

(note:  I have visited the Sony Building in New York, Yep they really do have leather walls.)

So now I have totally ripped the industry how about the solution I promised?  I am getting to it I just wanted to lay the foundation first so you could see how the solution actually fixes the problems and why the model I am going to propose would not only work but work better and still create plenty of profit for the music industry the service provider and the artists.

Side Note: If you are one of those types that thinks that all corporations are bad and profit is a vulgar word, go live in the woods because with out profit you would not have any of the things that make your life enjoyable, like your iPod, your Car or your house.

The solution is really pretty simple…

First, charge a reasonable price for each down load that should be 25-30% of the price of a hard copy, or about 25-35 cents per download.  I am sorry Mr. Sonny Executive but you can’t tell me cases, disks, printing, etc are your biggest costs for 5 decades and expect me to forget about that now.  I believed you then and I still believe you today, your amnesia is not contagious, I won’t forget the reality of the cost of materials, distribution and printing that you told me about for 50 years.

Second, follow a principal of real Web2.0, which is the more people that use a service the better it performs.  This is how Limewire works, the more users that have a song the faster it will be to download it.  With an iTunes model the more users the more resources Apple must provide to serve them.  Bandwidth transfer is a huge expense for any music provider. 

Simply put a token of some type on your tracks (not DRM) or allow your system to compare files so pieces of each track can be downloaded from multiple users.  This guarantees a user high quality music but defers a huge piece of the expense from the provider and improves the user experience. 

That is win-win and it works just fine, my music off Limewire is proof.  Honestly if, iTunes or Napster music is “better quality” it is a difference beyond my hearing ability and that of most other honest people as well.

Third, don’t DRM the music let people burn CDs, put it on any PC they want, etc.  Why?  Simply because you can’t stop it anyway, millions of people are sharing that song every day on Limewire and other P2P networks, emailing them and hell most new music is on 50 different YouTube videos anyway.  Stripping out the audio is pretty easy, even an old men like Mark Cuban and myself can do it. 

When I thought about this my first intention was to explain how greed is the problem here.   The music industry executives are so afraid of loosing sales because of greed they can’t see the opportunity to make more money by getting people who are using services like Limewire to start using a paid service.  The more I thought about it though, I think greed is the solution!  Greed is bad when you fear loosing but when you think of what you can acquire, greed can be good.

The music industry needs to redirect that greed from preventing legitimate users from sharing music and point it at how to get non paying users to voluntarily and happily start paying for music.  You see more people “steal” music then buy it today, a lot more!  The system I am outlining would be able to capture so much volume and reduce costs to such a level that the industry could make MORE MONEY by doing it.

Fourth, Take sharing to where Microsoft should have gone immediately.  Devices like Zune are just the first ones, PDAs have been beaming contact info since the 90s the technology is not hard to build so more players will come.  I do believe that music users should not be able to beam songs at will to non-paying members but the solution is pretty simple.  Let users who are paying members beam any song, let them play it a lot but at some point yes the song goes away.

You don’t have to universally DRM music to do this!  Just DRM music that is beamed as it is BEING BEAMED.  Don’t let users move beamed songs to PCs or burn disks, etc.  Now here is the real kicker, if you have a unlimited download service, then token the users device to allow unlimited sharing for paying unlimited users.  Why the hell not?  If they have unlimited downloads they could get it anyway, right?  Consider that if you did this again you are following the Web2.0 concept and the receiver does not use your system resources to redownload the song across your system.

Then do what the clueless Project Manager from Microsoft thought they were going to do and allow any music or any files not from your service to be exchanged at will.  If you are thinking about lost sales, keep the greed pointed in the right direction, more users = more sales = more money.

Fifth, Follow the Web2.0 concept of Google and make money with advertising.  Now this is not the nonsense that Spiral Frog tried.  I know as an adSense Publisher that ads do not work well in environments where users are “highly involved” like downloading music or in forums.  When a user is doing a task not just browsing they have a huge degree of ad blindness.    In other words on a general information page some of my ads do better then 15% click through but on a forum page with high return visitors and user interaction my ads are generally below 1%.

So, knowing that people downloading songs won’t be in an ad clicking mood and knowing the most relevant things you can sell them, music and players they are already buying (from you buy the way) what source of quality third party advertising revenue can you find.  One word Artists!  Sure Puff Daddy, Jessica Simpson or Justin Timberlake won’t pay money to get you to offer free downloads their music (not at first anyway) but tens of thousands of undiscovered talent all over the world will.

Think about this you are a garage band or bar band trying to make it.  You have cool original sound, your small group of fans love you so sending them out with a bunch of Zune type players, to beam you to users is not a bad idea right?  Well with out the stupid three-day, three strong restriction.  Well, what if you could have your music on a service like iTunes (I know technically you can already, stay with me here) or Zune Marketplace but it would work this way.?

The artist would classify their music almost like a pay per click account at google specifying the type of music they play, say alternative rock and list a group of artists who are famous say Pearl Jam, Breaking Benjamin, Fuel, etc. who their music is most similar to.  Then when a downloading customer was downloading a track from Breaking Benjamin they would get the opportunity to also download the unknown artists track for free.  Now, you charge say 5 cents a download to the artist to promote his music for him.  So for about 500 bucks the Garage band could be heard by 10,000 new fans all over the world!

Now you tell me what other form of advertising that is highly targeted exists that is this affordable even at twice the price to undiscovered talent.  What a MySpace page?  Really?   With several million (at least) fake accounts and no association with the listener’s favorite artists.  With a annual marketing budget of say 2000 dollars a year a new band could be broadcast to over 40,000 fans each year and with viral sharing possibly a lot more.  Of course you would track the sharing and let the artist know that he paid for 10,000 downloads but now 15,000 fans know about them.

I hope you don’t miss how the user benefits here!  Every time they download some music they get a track or two from undiscovered talent for free, they start to develop a really cool and different music library!  You over time can have an algorithm get better at targeting them by asking them to rate the free tracks on the simple star system.  In time collective intelligence will take over and deliver the perfect type of music from the undiscovered artist to the waiting fan.  Again the more people that use it the better it gets.

Sixth, Browser Integration is the final need in this service.  Users should log into an account via a browser and all outbound traffic should open new tabs in FireFox or Internet Explorer now has tabbed browsing too.  This will keep users on your portal as often as possible.  Jazz it up with things the way Live.com works where users can drop in sports scores, news and other rss feeds.

Of course all users have accounts and all their actions are monitored and demographic profiles are developed.  Partner with Google, Yahoo or Microsoft adCenter and work a deal for demographic targeting of seach results.  Put a search box on the main portal and now you have highly targeted visitors whose traffic can be sold to your search partner.  Since people need your page to download music and get those cool free tunes from unknown artists they will use it often.  By making it browser based you make them use it more and keep them using it longer. 

Now you don’t have to be a genius to understand that if the unknown band has a website the user gets to visit it while downloading the free track do you?  The unknown band can now sell their full album to the user of course most likely across your service and sell their other stuff, T-Shirts, CDs etc directly from their sites.

You should be seeing the final piece by now!   With this type of angle the big artists will want to buy LOTS of free downloads for their fans too.  Think about it, buy 100,000 give always for a big artist is nothing, they spend more on one trip to the shoe store.  With this type of promotional tool, they can then expect to do great with their new album, get lots of traffic to their sites and do what makes them the most money, sell ticket to concerts!

Ok that was long but honestly the above is a complete business plan for the right way to run a music distribution service.  It does the following,

1.  Cuts the cost to download music to a price low enough to make using your service more attractive and adds enough cool features to make it more fun then “stealing” from P2P applications.

2.  Provides a way for users to share resources and relieves the provider of a huge expense all while making the user experience better.

3.  Creates not one but three ad revenue streams from unknown artists, established artists and general search traffic while creating what might be the best demographic targeting in the online world.

4.  Becomes part of the users daily online life, like email or google.  The long-term revenue from this type of visitor loyalty is almost hard to comprehend.  Just ask Eric Schmidt!

5.  Fights piracy by embracing sharing rather then trying to prevent it.  YOU CANNOT STOP sharing music.  People will do it no matter what you do, your goal hear is to capture as much of the untapped market as you can.

Is my plan perfect?  Not at all I am not naive enough, not to know that as you started to build this product that all types of “problems” would show up.  Yet the framework of this plan is in my honest opinion better then any model we have in existence today.  The biggest obstacle would be getting the music industry on board, so it would take a company with enough clout to make Sony fear Time Warner and vise versa, etc. 

Honestly what Microsoft has done with Zune could be turned into my model far easier then anything else today.  Still I think it will need to be some start up with a big named backer to get it done.  It all goes back to greed, the big companies fear what they have to loose with misplaced greed.  The start up would channel greed for what can be gained in and that would send them in the right direction.

I believe a model like this will come to be some day and when it does remember you saw it laid out in full, here first.

So what additions could you make to my proposed service?  If you are a band would you pay 500 bucks to get your music into the players of 10,000 plus fans?  Do you think a model like this can work or will ever occur?  Let me know with your comments below.

Popularity: 17% [?]

I just noticed at the Sci-Fi Blog they had a review for the new Bose earbuds for your ipod.  If you know Bose, you know they like to brand everything differently and try and achieve a higher quality image.  So they call their earbuds "in ear headphones".

The interesting part of the blog post is that Bose is actually upgrading the earbuds.  The new earbuds will have multiple ear pads with different sizes.

If you purchased the original Bose earbuds and find they are ill-fitting at times, this should be your answer.  Just order your free Bose Earpads here.  They'll send you a replacement set of small, medium, and large earpads.  The web site also lists a stabelizer unit which they expect to be available in June 2007.  What the heck does that mean? You got me.

I do like my Bose earbuds and I find that are infinitely more comfortable than Apple's earbuds.  I can't believe anyone can stand those Apple earbuds for more than a few minutes.

What do you think?

- Ben Fitts 

Popularity: 8% [?]

I just took a look at a new program by CoolUtils.com and I must say it is indeed pretty cool.  The program is called total audio converter and it certainly delivers what it promises.   Some examples of common audio conversions that this program will do include

1.  Convert mp3 to wav, mp3 to wma, mp3 to ogg
2.  Convert wav to mp3, wav to ogg, wav to wma
3.  Convert wma to ogg, wma to wav, wma to mp3
4.  Convert ogg to mp3, ogg to wav, ogg to wma
5.  Convert flac to wav, flac to wma, flac to ogg

Along with a ton more.  In fact you can view a complete list of conversions on their website which is quite extensive.

So why would you want to convert audio files?  There are a ton of reasons, perhaps you want to convert a file so you can play it on your iPod or other audio player.  This is probally the most common use for such a utility. 

However, as a web marketer I can see a lot of other uses for it.  Perhaps I have a sound clip or audio track I want to use for a specific web appliation.  Many times I need to convert such files to a new format to ensure it will work for my application.  Some times I need several formats to make sure any of my visitors can download or hear the track.  

For instance I really like to use Real Producer to record verbal presentations but the basic version only produces .rm files and with total audio converter I can convert my .rm files to .wav or mp3 etc.  This will let me use my preferred recording method and still deliver my audio content in a more universal file format.

They even have a free trial download so if you have any need to convert audio file formats I suggest you give total audio converter a try,

~Jack Spirko

Technorati Tags: audio conversion, mp3, software, downloads, music, audio, web audio

Note: This was a sponsored post

Popularity: 4% [?]

I recently bought an IPod and a new Samsung Blackjack cell phone. Both these pieces of technology cost me a few hundred bucks (each) so I wanted to protect them. I don't want them getting scratched up and beaten up. A friend recommended this product to me called ShieldZone.

These guys invented this thin material to protect helicopter blades. They call it the invisible shield. Then one day they got the idea to apply it to a ipod. It's see-through, in fact it even makes the ipod "shiny". Yet it is super strong. You can't tear it, you pretty much have to cut it. When it's on your ipod you can beat your ipod up with your car keys and yet it won't bear a scratch mark. It is really amazing stuff. Don't believe me? Watch the videos of demonstrations they've done. They take two ipods and put them in a paper bag along with some car keys. One of the ipods is protected, the other isn't. Then they shake the bag vigorously. Needless to say when they come out the one ipod is covered with scratches. The protected one looks brand new.

The only bad thing about the shield is that they are die cut with a laser to fit your equipment. So they have little holes where buttons go, where the headphone jack is, etc. You have to apply the shield yourself so it can take a couple of tries to get it to align right. In fact i might even suggest buying 2 so you can feel free to remove it and try it again.

ShieldZone also makes invisible shields for cell phones, that cover the cell phone screen and unprotected areas of the phone. They even had one for my Blackjack (which was difficult to apply, the ipod one was much easier to apply.)

I highly recommend these guys.

These are not affiliate links, just a product I think is awesome and you guys should check out.

- Ben Fitts
Custom Card Guy

Popularity: 6% [?]

Note: The below article was my orginal view of the Zune before many problems came to light.  I no longer have the positive view of the product as in the following review.  Read, The Music Industry is Stupid, to learn more.  I have left the original review to show how I was very much wanting Zune to be a success as I think this makes my current criticism more creditable then the many Apple loyalists that just seem to want to bash Microsoft and Zune.

A lot of bloggers and news sources are downplaying the new Microsoft Zune player just officially announced with full details on the 14th of September. I, as you can tell by the title think they have a home run on their hands. I think before I go any further I need to define what I consider a home run. To me a home run means that the new product

1. Will take some of the iPod business. Note that is said “some” not all just enough to become profitable at Apple’s expense. The product does not need to be an “iPod Killer” to be a success in my book. To put it another way how would you like to have a 5% share of the current iPod business?

2. Has at least some features that the iPod does not that may for some users be attractive enough to make up for what the iPod does “better”.

3. Demonstrait to users that Microsoft is just taking a first shot at the market with plans for new versions and firmware upgrades.

4. Provide a music download service that offers some advantage over iTunes. This again does not mean it is “better over all” just that there are some unique value adds that are missing on iTunes.

5. Get Microsoft into “the game” with a product that can stand on its own beyond just carrying the Microsoft name.

Now who knows that may or may not be what the folks at Microsoft will consider a success but to me if they pull off those 5 points well with their first product then to me they have indeed pulled off a successful "market entry", and that is what needs to be remembered the first generation is only the initial market entry for Microsoft. It is not meant to be the end all be all Microsoft portable media players.

So how did they do? Well here are the products highlights strait from the Microsoft Fact Sheet,

Wireless Zune to Zune music sharing. Zune lets you spontaneously share selected full-length sample tracks of your favorite songs, homemade recordings, playlists or pictures with friends wirelessly, device to device. You can listen to any song you receive up to three times in three days. And if you like a song you hear and want to buy it, you can flag it right on your device to easily find it later.

Your own personalized Zune. Zune is easy to use and easy to love. You can choose one of three base colors, each combined with a distinctive double-shot finish created by the overlay of one color on another. The player also can easily be customized with your favorite pictures.

Large color screen. Zune comes with a bright 3-inch LCD video screen that works in portrait or landscape mode. Your music, video and pictures never looked better.

30GB player. Zune stores up to 7,500 songs, 25,000 pictures or 100 hours of video. You can make playlists on the go and watch a slide show while you’re listening. Watching video in landscape mode gets the most out of the vivid display.

Zune Pass. Downloads or a subscription? It’s your choice. A Zune Pass subscription gives you “all you can eat” access to discover and explore the Zune Marketplace.

Built-in FM tuner. With the built-in FM tuner you can listen to local FM radio stations or tune in to programming while you’re at your local health club, for example. Advanced tuning capabilities allow you to see the name of the song currently playing on selected frequencies.

Accessories. You can choose from a full line of accessories to outfit your Zune. Three Zune Accessory Packs provide complete solutions for Zune in your car, in your home or while you travel. Individual accessories are also available.

Online music store. You can browse the huge selection of music designed to work seamlessly with your Zune in the Zune Marketplace. When you find new music that you love, it’s simple to buy it and sync it on your player. The Zune Marketplace works with the Microsoft® Points program so you can purchase music online without a credit card.

Import your music. Zune software can automatically import your existing music, pictures and videos from iTunes and Windows Media® Player in a variety of formats, including your existing play lists and song ratings, as permitted by the online service from which it was purchased.

Software Updates. As Zune evolves, your device can be easily updated. The Zune software on your PC will let you know when updates are available for download. And with built-in wireless capability in each player, the future is filled with possibilities.

I am not going to say too much about the accessories, music store and software for the moment as I would like to go more in-depth on them in future posts. Suffice to say I really like the fact that you can buy music permanently from the store and you don’t have to keep a subscription to continue to play the music. Of these features I think there are two that help to really make the Zune an alternative to the iPod.

First the ability to share and beam songs and pictures to other Zune users is really cool. This feature has been downplayed as being nothing new and people have pointed out that Palm devices have been beaming data for many years. That may be true but I can’t do it with an iPod, let alone what happens if I DARE TO PLUG MY IPOD INTO YOUR PC. iPods and iTunes are simply set up to prevent sharing of files even the ones you own personally, the Zune is designed from the get go to be a sharing tool (at least with your personal content) and I think that is a great differentiator in the current music market place. While music purchased from the Zune Marketplace will only play three times, if it was ripped from a CD in your personal collection, you can import it all including your playlists, album art, ratings and play counts.

Who knows, may be someone up in Redmond Washington read my article about SpiralFrog? Second is the FM tuner. While many competing MP3 players have this feature and it was again met with a yawn by some bloggers, again my point is while other players do have an FM tuner, the iPod does not. According to Microsoft, Zune is really designed at first entry to compete the 30 Gig iPod mostly used for music not the new 80 GB iPod Video Player. If my choice is between the Zune and the 30 Gig iPod the radio tuner indeed could be a decisive factor.

While either will be great for a podcast if I want to listen to live radio the Zune will let me and the iPod won’t. To me this is a really great feature if it could record audio from the radio broadcast it would be even better. My guess is that in time a firmware upgrade will allow for that too. Of course you can still play videos in many formats on your Zune it is just important to understand the market where the Zune is to compete if we are to judge its’ potential for success.

My Conclusion I would have to say that the Zune is going to be a real success for Microsoft and I have already told my wife that a Zune Player in on the top of my Christmas list this year. I personally feel the first generation of the Zune will only be scratching the surface for what is coming long term. I also think there are a few features Microsoft would have preferred to have with the new Zune’s release but would guess it came down to releasing for Christmas of 06 or late spring of 07 and Microsoft made the right call. The prominent mention of “firmware upgrades” tells us there will be more to come even from the initial release.

Popularity: 8% [?]

iPod fans have plenty to be happy because Apple just introduced its latest generation iPod devices. The new iPods will feature longer battery life (up to twenty-four hours) and brighter displays. The new iPod features three updated editions.

The new iPod Shuffle, about the size of a Bick Lighter, is now officially the smallest portable MP3 player in the world. Retail price is around $79, while a small player it is big on space allowing you to store up to 240 songs.

The iPod Nano has been completely redesigned. It’s now thinner, has five color choices and three storage size options: 2GB, 4GB and a new 8GB version. Starting at around $149, the Nano is now more competitive with some newer offerings from folks like Sandisk and their new Sansa.

Of couse the biggest news is that Apple introduced the new 80GB video iPod, which has replaced the 60 GB model. If you are counting (and who isn’t) 80 GB is enough space for more then 20,000 songs as well as photos, videos and movies.
On the movie front Apple iTunes store now offers over 75 movies from Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films. Prices for the ever-growing movie collection will begin at $9.99 and go up to $12.99.

On a final note Apple also introduced iTunes 7 which offers new features such as new cover art, flow views of music, TV shows, games and movies. One thing I can say for Apple is they are not just sitting back enjoying their success, they in fact are continuing to innovate, develop and lead the market.

Even as the fan of Creative Labs that I personaly am that is great news because it keeps everyone working hard to get better as well,

~ Jack

Technorati Tags: ipod, mp3, nano, new ipod, downloadable music, music downloads, movie downloads, itunes, digital music, ipod suffle, ipod nano, 80 gb ipod

Popularity: 6% [?]

A few weeks ago a service called SpiralFrog was launched and we were one of the first to report on it in our article, "SpiralFrog - More Proof the Music Companies Just Don’t Get It". Well this weekend a similar story was announce about legal movie downloads. 

The new service run by Amazon.com is called Unbox but I think the term "Unintellegent Marketing" might be a better description. I happen to follow Mark Cuban's blog "Blog Maverick" because in a former life I was deeply involved in the design of the Broadcast.com data centers that made him a billionaire. 

It turns out Mark shares my view on this new service and has posted a review by Richard Greenfield along with his own commentary at his blog. The review and examination of the problems and shortfalls of Unbox is extensive and dead on so rather then review it ourselves we will just recommend that you read Mark's Review of Unbox on his blog. Internet Movie Downloads vs Store DVDs - a quick biz lesson

What do you think the future has in store for Unbox and downloading of Movies in general?

~ Jack Spirko

Technorati Tags: Richard Greenfield, broadcast.com, unbox, mark cuban, movie downloads, blog mavrick, online media, online video, streaming video, amazon.com, file sharing, video downloads, movies

Popularity: 9% [?]

Today one of the hot news stories is that a new music service called SpiralFrog will allow users to download any universal music file for free and that the revenue will be derived from advertising. As intelligent as this might sound, trust me we have already hit the peak and it is now going to be a long trip down hill from here on out.

Ok so the first thing you will have to do to download music once this service starts is watch or listen to a one minute commerical, you can then download one song. OK so far not that bad right, it gets worse! Next that song will work for a “period of time” but to keep it working you have to go back and watch more commmericials by logging in at least once a month to do so. NO, NO wait we are still heading down hill. Next when you download it to your MP3 Player it must stay there you can’t put it on a CD it is pretty much locked into your Windows Media Player and your MP3 Player.

Oh but my friends we are not done yet! Nope it is also not compatable with the iPod so you have to use a player that works with Windows Media. Now here is a secret about me I am a Creative Labs fan myself and really like their players BUT to set up a music service that excludes 70% of the market is kind of starting with a pretty big handicap. One last thing for right now you have access to all the songs from Universal Music but no others. Universal is huge and the biggest ones others will follow but it doesn’t help that only one music company is available up front.

To me this is just one more example of the music industry screaming “we are so stupid, we do not understand the market is it not amazing that we became one of the worlds richest industries, oh God why does everyone hate us and steal our property”.

In an article by Vnunet called SpiralFrog offers free legal music downloads, the companies cheif executive Robin Kent stated, “Piracy continues to be one of the biggest issues facing the music industry where illegal file sharing and unauthorised CD burning are the prime means of music piracy”.

OK well just why do people use services like LimeWire to file share and “steal” music? How about the facts that is it is easy, free, fast, works well and you can find any song in the world there.

Yet I think people will be happy to pay for music but if the industry wants to solve the problem they need to address the two key reasons people continue to use file sharing services.

1. People want to be able to play music in their car on a CD or on one of their other PCs, if they have and iPod (and many do) they want to use it. Most services prevent this in an “attempt to prevent file sharing”, but it just doesn’t work. Name that tune and I can get a copy on Limewire.

2. The music industry has told us for years why they have to charge as much as they do and the biggest expense they point to is printing the lables, burning the disks, the art work, shipping, stocking shelves, etc. Well, you can’t have it both ways we all KNOW that it costs a LOT less to deliver electronic music so the price point of around a dollar a song for music you actually own and can keep with out a subscription is too high.

So what is the solution? The music industry would be smart to just build a system where people can buy songs at about 50 cents a title and then do as they please with them. The industry would counter that, then people will share them, my response would be BUT THEY ALREADY ARE AND YOU CAN’T AND NEVER WILL BE ABLE TO STOP IT.

The music industry needs to look back at the dual tape deck and realize it did not distroy them.

If you are a younger person you might not really remember tape decks but they were “the music media choice” in the 70s, 80s and much of the 90s. When the first dual tape decks came out in the 70s the music industy went ape over it, clammering how the piracy would be insane and starve the poor artists. Sorry but last time I visited the Sony Executive offices in New York City they still had LEATHER WALLS and marble floors.

Every single top executive in the music industry should be forced to write the following 1000 times on a chalk board.

Music by its nature is simply sound and if it can be played it can be recorded, if it can be recorded it can be placed in a portable format and if it can be placed in a portable format it can be shared. Since we can not make music with out sound we can’t stop sharing so we need to embrace it and learn how to profit from it.

These record companies reaction to file sharing is one of the most short sighted and profit killing business moves made in the history of the free market. If 10 years ago they had just jumped on board and made a site that sold music cheap and portable, integrated forums and community features, developed mailing lists of people based on their prefrence and did the basic things successful web companies do they could be making more money from ADVERTISING today then anyone in the world and no not by making people be forced to watch an ad prior to one download.

The model is simple, today if you control traffic you can make billions and music drives traffic, grasp that music execs it is your only way out of this issue.

As for SpiralFrog, in Florida when I was growing up when the first rains came each year many of the frogs came out and got squished on the road, when I think of SpiralFrog, the image of those little squished frog is all I can see,

~ Jack Spirko

Technorati Tags: universal music, download music, MP3 Player, Windows Media Player, iPod, Creative Labs, file sharing, CD burning, music piracy, LimeWire, spiralfrog, ipod, digital music, download music

Popularity: 7% [?]

Way back in May of this year reported on a Creative Labs law suit against Apple in our post, “Ipod Violates a Patent“. The suit centered around the way that songs and titles were organized for navigation on the Ipod and Creative claimed that said navigation scheme was developed by their company for their MP3 Player and Digital Media Player interfaces.

Nobody thought much of this at the time wondering how setting up the way titles display (which is almost identical to the file system used on most PCs) could possibly be protected under a patent.

Well Apple Computer must have felt quite a bit of pressure about this issue because they just agreed to settle the issue by paying Creative Labs a 100 Million dollar lisencing fee. Which will cover life time use of technology.

Apple may have just figured buying Creative off was the best long term play or they may have been more afraid of loosing the case in any event Ipod Users can now be sure that they file system will remain the same. As for Creative Labs, their biggest competitor was just forced to contribute 100 Million dollars to them, my bet is a lot will go into development new products, designed of course to compete with Apple. Irony at its’ finest in my opinion.

The problem for others though is now if they are going to use a file system that looks anything like Creative’s or Apples there is now a precedent for the need of a lisence. With the settlement coming “out of court” it will not carry the weight of a true legal ruling but it indeed could be a big road bump for anyone competing in the digital media space in the future. In the end that could be the real reason Apple settled the case.

Both companies are spinning the event in a positive light but anyone can see the company that got a 100 million dollar check is the clear winner here.

~Jack Spirko

Technorati Tags: Creative Labs, Apple, Ipod, MP3 Player, Digital Media Player, Apple Computer, Ipod Violates a Patent

Popularity: 5% [?]

SanDisk is reported to be ready to soon reveal product updates and price reductions in another attempt to wean away more prospective customers of Apple’s iPod. According media reports (Wallstreet Journal and Reuters Canada) , SanDisk, will launch a MP3 player called the Sansa priced at $249.99. It will offer 8 gigabytes of memory, which is enough to store 2,000 songs, which is almost double the capacity of the similarly-priced Apple’s iPod Nano but falls far short of the 30GB Ipod Video that is only 50 dollars more.

SanDisk also intends to cut down prices of its other music players by as much as 30 per cent, according to source reports. So far there is no official confirmation from the company on any of this. The report quoted the company’s chief executive officer Eli Hariri as saying he wants the company to be clearly positioned as No 2 in the market and distance itself from competitors like Creative, Samsung and Sony.

~ Jack

Technorati Tags: digital music, mp3, ipod, sandisk, creative labs, samsung, sony, music download, portable music

Popularity: 5% [?]

In a complaint filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission, Creative Technology charges that the iPod — as well as the iPod Nano and iPod Mini — incorporates a user interface first designed by Creative Technology to make it easy to navigate through thousands of songs stored on the MP3 player. You can read the story in the San Francisco Chronical titled , Lawsuit: iPod violates patent Rival alleges Apple took player’s design

Popularity: 5% [?]