May 25, 2006
With all the focus on the Napster glasnost and Urge as part of the revamped Wndows Media troika, there's been a lot of discussion on the "closed" nature of iTunes Music Store and how it is the only online iPod-compatible store for music. This has never been the case. Long before the iTunes Music Store and even the iPod were launched, eMusic.com was selling DRM-free music in the nearly universally supported MP3 format. The downside has been that it hasn't been able to attract content from major — or even, it seems, many independent — labels.
I checked out the site for the first time in a while tonight. The layout is clean and easy to navigate, but I had a hard time finding much music I like and the site isn't helping itself posting AMG reviews that say things like this regarding Todd Rundgren And His Friends:
As well-intentioned as this was meant to be, it really doesn't add much to his catalog and essentially just gives session players like Steve Lukather and Kulick's brother, Bruce, a showcase for their talents. But they have already proven their worth on their own recordings, making this a non-essential item for all but dedicated Rundgren collectors.
Editorial integrity is one thing, but you'd never see such a damning review on Amazon.com. Worse, eMusic combines some of the worst of both worlds in charging a subscription fee for a limited number of downloads! In eMusic's defense, those downloads can be used practically anywhere digital music can be played, with no limits on the number of machines on which they can be used. Furthermore, unlike with services such as Napster, the songs won't expire if you cancel your subscription. Still, there's no way I could find enough content on the service to justify a subscription (although I admit I'm not a big fan of live music which is featured heavily), and that would certainly be true for more discriminating consumers.
As usual, some of the gems seem to be among unsigned artists but, if that's your bag, you're better off surfing garageband.com or cdbaby.com.
Depicting cell phones and digital cameras small enough to be worn like overgrown pendants have long been a marketing ploy by technology vendors even though consumers rarely carry them that way. Perhaps they have all striven to escape the "pocket prison" — that valuable real estate that can accommodate only one or two mobile devices. As exercise accessories, we've certainly seen many armbands that can accommodate bantam devices like the lightweight iPod Shuffle or iPod nano (or even their less bantam CD and portable tape playing forebears), but again it is pretty rare to see people wearing these devices outside of a gym or running track.
However, two new technology advances showcased this week show that we are indeed on the precipice of infiltrating technology into the everday. The Nike+Apple Sport Kit is an inexpensive accessory for athletic shoes that sell for as little as $85 while the Abacus 2006 watch appears to be the first one with Microsoft's SPOT technology that isn't conspicuously thick. MSN Direct has other obstacles, such as competing with increasingly savvy cell phones and building a subscription business, but both products represent fresh approaches to data-enabling formerly dumb devices.
May 18, 2006
Now that MTV Networks' Urge service is available, consumers will decide whether all of MTV's programming and context will drive them to a subscription model. Because of the editorial intelligence embedded into the service, Urge does an excellent job of enabling music exploration, an area where the iTunes Music Store continues to lag badly. One thing is certain: Windows Media Player 11 is a huge improvement over the previous version and presents music more graphically than iTunes. However, the iRiver clix, while one of the better digital media players from the WMA camp, is no iPod nano killer.
If you're among those who believe that Apple's success in the digital music space has bee due to aggressive advertising and promotion, Urge should certainly give Apple cause for concern as MTV Networks can promote its service around the clock on television for practically nothing.
May 2, 2006
Napster today announced a free tier of service that enables consumers to listen to a song five times before asking them to pony up for the subscription service. This will go a long way to boosting Napster's mindshare. Indeed, while much attention has been focused on which company will be the Flickr of video, Napster now has an opportunity to become a sort of Flickr for music, that is, a blog-friendly (if not yet tag-friendly) resource that enables consumers to share music in a legal way that embraces the spirit of its original namesake; this has groundbreaking promotional value.
Its new free service not only steals much of the thunder from Yahoo! Music as a source for sampling, but one-ups that service with easy Web accessibility and even Mac support. Alas, though, Napster needs to close the gap between its limited free service and its full service. Creating even one middle tier of service that lacked downloads to portable devices — useless to most of the market at this point anyway – would help reinforce the psychological groundwork that Napster is now laying with its advertising and free access, that you can enjoy access to on-demand music without having to own it.
April 30, 2006
Earlier this week, Yahoo! acquired most of the assets of Meedio, one of a handful of Windows Media Center-like software products that had its roots in open-source. The other major Windows-based products are from SageTV and Media Center predecessor SnapStream, with Linux offerings MythTV and Freevo still options for the open source crowd. Whereas Medio had become a commercial product, Yahoo! will give away its rebranded version Yahoo Go!.
Following last year's acquisition of Konfabulator technology — now called Yahoo! Widgets, Yahoo! now has platforms in place for each of the major "three screens" of TV, PC and mobile phone. However, even though Yahoo!'s acquisition strategy has created a predictably disjointed family of products, the diversity of the products demonstrates the tremendous differences in context that media companies will face developing a three-screen strategy.
In these times when Google has been aggressively adding many sites that rival Yahoo!'s, Meedio's acquisition provides fresh fuel for the old rumor that Google would acquire TiVo. Unlike Meedio, which is still simply Windows software, TiVo has actual eyeballs in front of the glass it commands, and Google could afford the kind of generosity that would eliminate its odious monthly fee, boosting TiVo's popularity. EPIC may not be far away.
