I recently replaced my iPod Mini with a new iPod Nano. I like the updates to the user interface. I think it is good enough to be worth me upgraded. I really like the display.
This is finally a reason for me to try to get cover art for all my MP3s. The interface with the cover art is much better than the generic music note that you get without artwork.
The problem is I have a lot of songs that do not have any artwork. iTunes will get the artwork if the album is available via iTunes. Being a big e-music fan I have a lot of albums from there that are not on iTunes. It is a good deal of work to join up those albums and that artwork. I also have a good number of songs that have no artwork at all. The songs are from all sorts of places. Does anyone know a good place to get MP3 artwork? What do you do when it is a song without an album?
Above is why I never bought music from Microsoft. Something in the back of my head knew this was coming some day. If Microsoft did not rule the market they were going to leave the market. Microsoft is not really leaving the market, they just shifted to the Zune marketplace. All the MP3s in the Zune Marketplace are DRM free. Microsoft is not doing that bad of a thing here.
I know the people in the music industry do not see this as a problem. To them it is no different than switching from cassette to CD. The difference in the eyes of the customer was that upgrading to CD was getting value with that upgrade. Here the customer is not getting any additional value.
I think this is a good example of the music industry alienating it's customers. It is that alienation that keeps people from paying for your product. The story above is why I currently will not buy any music with DRM. It is all MP3s for me now.
George Kliavkoff, chief digital officer at NBC Universal had a great quote about pirated content and portable media:
If you look at studies about MP3 players, especially leading MP3 players and what portion of that content is pirated, and think about how that content gets onto that device, it has to go through a gatekeeping piece of software, which would be a convenient place to put some antipiracy measures," Kliavkoff said in an onstage interview at the Ad:Tech conference. "One of the big issues for NBC is piracy. We are financially harmed every day by piracy. It results in us not being able to invest as much money in the next generation of film and TV products."
Wow, this one is a little disturbing to me. This guy needs to know a little about technology. I cannot find his education listed on the web. Maybe he a lawyer and not an engineer. From this comment you can tell he has no idea what made the Apple iPod successful. It is successful because it is an open platform. I can put my content on it without having to have that content blessed by Apple. If I needed my content blessed by Apple, I would buy a different device.
I would be afraid of any antipiracy software on my portable media player. How is that player going to tell if the content it pirated? Will I be able to put my own content on my player? If I make the content will I have to have it blessed by someone? Will I not be allowed to put content from third parties on my media player?
Right now I have more than one way to get a TV show to my iPod. Being a TiVo User I can use TiVo Desktop Plus to transfer a show to my computer and from there to my iPod. Is that piracy? I am paying for the program, it has all the adds, NBC has not stopped TiVo for TiVoToGo yet.
I know this comment is not really about this generation of Portable media players. It is about the Media players like the iPod Phone and the iPod Touch. Players that are connected to the web. I know he wants to make sure those players have his approval. I know that he wants media players to be closed systems. Cell Phone companies are making people thing this is possible. I think it is a bad idea for everyone including content company. As you close off avenues to content getting to boxes, you like the reasons for people to buy your content.
The industry's lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are "unauthorized copies" of copyrighted recordings.
You got to be kidding me. This is the stupidest thing I have heard the RIAA ever do and they have done some stupid things. This crosses the line. Right now nobody is going to be buying music if they cannot listen to it. If you cut off the iPod you cut off every chance people will buy music at all. People might get away from commercial music all together. You might see the death of the album all together.
Sony BMG's chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, testified that "when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Copying a song you bought is "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy,' " she said.
This is over the line. Either the music industry is selling me an individual product which I purchase and can do whatever I want to, like play that product in front of other people without paying a license, or they are selling me an intellectually property and I get to move it from device to device. I can only play one copy at a time, let me do it wherever I am. That is all people are asking for. Until you let people play the content wherever they are, you are not going to see sales improve.
Today I find out that all this might be out of context. The problem is that with everything the RIAA does, no one would put this beyond them.
A few days ago I saw something on Buzz Anderson's twitter stream about playlists. He was quoting someone and I think the quote was "Most people still see playlists as functional objects and not expressive objects." I have been thinking about this quote.
I looked at my iTunes collection. I have a huge music library. It is better that 200 GB and 40,000 songs. i listen to a lot of music, but not enough to even make a dent in my collection. On top of that I am adding more all the time.
I am one of those people that use playlist as a functional device and not an expressive one. I think that 9 out of 10 of my playlists are use to organize my music or to manage my music on my iPod. I am not trying to create the perfect mix. I am not trying to express myself to anyone else.
To be honest, I still like to listen to albums. As often as people say that the album is dead, I have not seen anything replace it yet. I do not know a serious artist who has gone back to singles. There are lots of artists I like that are putting out good albums.
The other reason that my playlists are not expressive is that I am not sharing them with anyone. There are lots of problems with sharing playlists. I know that most of these Buzz has made a new software program to help people share playlists, C86. The only problem here is that the program is Mac only. That cuts out most of the people I want to share playlists with.
Playlists will keep being functional as long as people cannot share them easily.
I have been thinking about Yahoo music. I know that Yahoo has been trying to get its house in order. They are trying to focus there efforts on the parts of the business that works for them. I have heard that Yahoo music is one of the parts of the business that is on the cutting block.
My Girlfriend has Yahoo Music Unlimited and she really likes it. It is one of those music subscription services. She pays a monthly fee and can get to any song she likes. It is an interesting service. I think more people would like it if they tried it.
I decided to buy her a Sansdisk sansa connect MP3 player. I know some of the guys who worked on this thing. For someone who uses Yahoo Music Unlimited it seems like the best choice for an MP3 player. The Sandisk Sansa Connect player has a Wifi Connection. You can download music from the Yahoo Music Service to this player. You can download songs from your playlists, songs from the service or songs that are recommended from your ratings of songs.
The yahoo music service gives you access to just about any song you could want. The Sandisk sansa connect gives you access to this music from anywhere with a wifi connection. Wow, this is finally an MP3 player that gives the iPod a run for its money. This seems like the killer app for this service.
The problem is that Yahoo makes it very hard to sign up for this service. My girlfriend could not upgrade from her current subscription to get access to this. She had to start a new subscription. It just feels very strange. It is like Yahoo does not want to promote this. They have a killer app, but they do not know what to do with it. I wonder if this mp3 player is going to get lost in the shuffle. It is a shame because I would like to see more MP3 players with this kind of feature.
I read this story in the Mercury News how High School Sports teams need to make rules about iPods. It would be sad to me to see a high school cross country race to see everyone wearing headphones. I understand that headphones are part of running culture. In a marathon lots of people wear headphones, but it would be sad to see that in the Olympics. I know that it is not about the pure nature of the sport, but there is still something to be said about not were headphones everywhere. There should be some part of culture that is immune to the MP3 player.
In the Mercury News there is a story about how schools are banning iPods because of cheating. This story makes me think two thing. First it turns me into "Back in my day" guy. None of my teachers would have let em get a way with having an iPod in class. It is a sign of disrespect to the teacher and it is a distraction. I am not even sure why kids would have iPods in class anyway. It is not going to help them learn, except in maybe music class.
The second think I think is for the schools, DUH, of course kids are going to use iPods to cheat. iPods had to be out five years before you figured that out. My high school banned walkmen. Cheating may or may not had something to ti with it, but I do know people back then who used their walkmen to cheat.
I know that iPods and computer tech makes it a little easier to cheat now. Leaving your book open in Spanish class is not as sexy as putting the answers on your iPod. Writing your cribsheet on your sock is not as tricky putting it as a text file on your iPod. If I was a teacher I would not be letting my students have iPods in class. That would be a simple call.
I am impressed that Apple has been able to keep such a high market share, but I am not impressed at the rate of adaption of mp3 players. I think there are a ton of opportunities that Apple was able to capitalize on. Apple did an amazing job staying on top of the heap and seeing 100 million units without the MP3 player becoming a commodity. We have to recognize that Apple has things in iPods favor that other devices do not have.
1) Fifteen Years of Sony Walkmen: - Growing up in the 80s, the walkman was the gold standard of personal electronics. Everyone wanted one and everyone had to have one. Most of my life headphones have been a part of it. No one had to convince me that a portable music player was a good way to spend my money. I was about 30 when the iPod came out. It was not a hard sell to me or anyone else under 30.
By the time the MP3 player came around I was ready to get rid of my old CD walkman. The CD walkman was too large and too hard to carry music around for. Even my Creative Nomad was a big improvement of the CD walkman.
Gadgets are in - Between Cell Phones, Game Boys, PDAs, DVD players, and game consoles, This has been a gadget decade. Gadgets are feeding America's need to buy thing. There is not two ways around it. Best Buy and Circuit City are two of the biggest retail chains in America for a reason. Apple was able to cash in on these trends.
The Price is right - In consumer electronics $300-200 is the golden range. It is the range where people can buy the product without having to ask their spouse. It is in that some one special (spouse, child parent) gift range. I think that a decade of items like the Playstation has helped set this range. Once the iPod hit this range people went right out and bought big.
Don't get me wrong. Apple did a lot of things right. I think iTunes, the iPod Mini, adding more features each release, and the iPod nano all helped Apple keep their market share. If they would have done something wrong another company would have picked up the slack. Apple worked hard to keep the killer market share. I am still not impressed how how fast 100 million MP3 players have sold.
I have been unconvinced by the iPhone from before it was announced at MacWorld. I have a lot of the same concerns that John Dvorak has. I know that Dvorak has a history of being a troll. It does not mean he does not have a good point.
Apple has a great history of beating companies that are not that good to start with. The MP3 player market was not very developed when Apple got in. Of course they made quick work of that market. Now they are entering a market with companies that sell hundreds of millions of units. Nokia, Motorola, and LG have all been around the block a few times. That makes this a whole different game.
The point that Dvorak is making is that Apple will need to be able to revise the iPhone much quicker than it has revised the iPod. Even if the first iPhone is great, they will be a long way from taking over the market at that point.
In a year's time we will be able to tell if the iPhone was successful or not. Until then Dvorak has just as much of a chance of being right as all those fanboys going crazy for a phone they have not used yet.
I am on vacation this week, but I am not going anywhere. I am just going to stay home in San Jose. Staying home for a week means that I will be listening to a lot of music. I will either be sitting at my computer with iTunes going or I will be out somewhere with my iPod.
In the last couple of weeks I have bought the new Apples in Stereo and new Modest Mouse albums. This will be a good time to get to know those albums better. I have been buying music at a pretty good clip this year. I need to take some time to listen to it. Since my time is mine over the next week, listening to music sounds like a good way to spend that time.
Apple announced their new cell phone, the iPhone. It was the big announcement at MacWorld this year. Most of the people I know are going crazy for them already. They are excited to see that Apple is entering the smart phone market. They think that apple will clobber it the same way they clobbered the MP3 player market.
I am always hesitant when people tell me something is the next big thing. I have seen a lot of next big things fail. I will hold my judgment on the iPhone until I can see and use one. I think the devil will be in the details here. Even if the UI is really good it does not mean the hardware will live up to the UI.
I am worried about the touch screen. I want to have real buttons and a real keyboard. I ma happy to give up some screen size for real buttons. I like the feedback you do not get on a touch screen. I also have fat, sweaty fingers. That is not good for a touch screen. It will be hard to keep clean and unscratched. I think I would rather have a larger device with a slider.
I wonder how long it takes for them to put out the same device without any phone features. It looks like it would be a pretty cool iPod without the phone features. I would like it for just wifi/iPod use.
I am also unconvinced because I am not about to switch my phone provider to get one. I am not about to switch to Singular. No one I know likes Singular.
I like this article about the So-called iPhone that everyone is looking forward to. I have always has questions about an Apple Cell Phone. Would it be a smart phone, like the Trio and Blackberry or would it just be a phone that also had a music player.
Much of the problem has to do with the cell providers. They make money from controlling the experience. Most people get phones from the cell providers because the providers pay for the cost of the hardware. This means that Apple would have to make a deal with some cell phone providers or they would have to make a phone so good that people are willing to pay full price for it.
I am not sure the Apple or customers would really be happy with an iPhone. I know that people want to know what Apple could do to a cell phone, but I think the issues are too large. I want to see what they can do, but I do not think the can just change the market. Cell phones are a pretty mature product, I am not sure apple can come in and just change everything.
I am sad to say that I live in the kind of city where a Group of men beat teen over an iPod. I know it is just a mugging like any other mugging. The idea of being mugged over an iPod just depresses me. It might be because I am always wearing my iPod. I will say if you try to beat me over my iPod it will end poorly for all of us.
iTV - I Could swear Someone Else Owns that trademark
I looked at Apples Announcements today about the new iPods and new iTunes Movie Store. I think that Apple has done a lot get into a place where they can download video to people. I think they answered a lot of the questions I had last week.
I am happy to see that the movies and TV shows will be downloaded at 640x480 now. I think this is important. This makes it much more watchable on a larger screen. It will still look kind of crappy on a big TV. I wonder if they are working their way up to HD signals. That would take a lot more bandwidth.
I am not sure about the selection of movies. They are launching with 75 movies. That is a lot less than Amazon has right now with Unbox. Apple is only launching with movies from Disney. I wonder how long it will take Steve to get other studios on board.
I am interested in seeing the iTV hardward. I could swear that someone owns that trademark already. Maybe Apple bought it too. It has HD outputs, I wonder if HD content is coming. I wonder if that hardware will have a hard drive or not. If there is HD content without a hard drive, that will be rough on home networks. The iTV is an answer that Amazon Unbox does not currently have.
I think the iTV as shown implies that Steve Jobs has no interest in broadcast. He has said before that he was not interested in making a DVR. The iTV would lead me to believe this is true. There are no video inputs just video outputs. I wonder if it will be able to stream DVDs also.
I think the new iPod Nano without video is a good move. The Nano is already the most popular iPod ever. I see no need to ad video pay back to that product. I think it helps them create a value proposition for the regular iPods. I think they are really creating a family of products not just putting the same functions on every product.
When I bought my iPod I but in April asked the Genius at the Apple Story what can be done about the battery. I knew it was similar to a laptop battery and people need to replace laptop batteries all the time. The Genius told me that people had not had them long enough to kill the battery yet. He said that by that time, Apple should have something in place.
It appears that some people are finding that the batteries are starting to die at 18 months. Apple wants $255+ to replace the battery. There are other place people can buy replacement batteries. I still think that a lot of customers will be really upset by this. it will be interesting to see how Apple handles this. It could really turn people off the iPod.
I already have an iPod, but I think this is a good marketing idea. For a long time I have noticed with cross over between VW drivers and Mac owners. It would only be really cool if I could get the New Beetle in white plastic like my iBook. I am not sure, but I think I could buy a cheaper car and buy a bigger iPod.
