And so ends the life of another would-be iTunes competitor.
Spiral Frog, a Universal-backed subscription music catastrophe, has apparently called it quits. Though the service was “free” (using an ad-supported model), it still suffered from the five things that pretty much all subscription-based music models share…
Norway has taken their two-year fight against iTunes and Apple’s FairPlay DRM to its next step, and will now ask the government to force Apple to open their iTunes music to other devices besides the iPod.
When Nokia and Universal announced their “Comes With Music” initiative last December, this is what I wrote:
This music is heavily DRM’ed — no subscription model can function without it. I suspect the idea that you still “own” it after the year is dependent upon one’s definition of the word “own”. I don’t think I’ll like Nokia/Universal’s definition.
When the full details come out, I bet we’ll discover that unless you continue a Nokia “Comes With Music” contract on a phone (in which case you’re still paying for the subscription), or never change the PC you’re using when the phone terms expire, you will lose the music.
Today we now have details on the thing. The relevant points:
The user is only able to change registered mobile device or PC every three months for a further two years post termination.
After two years post termination (after three years from beginning of the subscription) users will be able to keep the content on their current device/PC but will no longer be able to re-download it from the service.
In short, as I suspected, I don’t like Nokia’s definition of the word “own”.
You “own” it as long as you stay with one of their devices and keep extending your contract. Once the contract is over, however, the music is stuck on the mobile device/PC you have at the time, and cannot be moved. Own it, my ass.
Much has been made of the “news” that Amazon’s MP3 store is now the #2 online retailer in digital music. You can absorb some various thoughts on this in these articles:
And then of course there are the myriad re-hashes of the USA Today article syndicated in papers everywhere, as well as other articles parroting the story as if iTunes is somehow being threatened.
Picked up an Airport Express today. This thing has intrigued me ever since it was introduced. Not because it’s a super small and convenient device for creating a high-speed WiFi network — complete with Internet and print sharing. And not because it can also serve as an inexpensive bridge for extending an existing wireless network.
No, what appealed to me about it was AirTunes: The ability to stream music. In other words, to plug into a powered stereo and make those speakers appear “remote” to a copy of iTunes on any Mac or PC on the same network.
According to the Financial Times this is in the works.
Personally, I’ve never been a fan of this model, though assuming it’s optional it finally has a shot to succeed now that the largest and most popular online music store (and second-largest music store) would be offering it for those who want it.
I’ve written a couple of times about my disappointment with Radiohead’s online distribution of their latest album (In Rainbows).
Initially, I thought that they were just naive and had blown a great opportunity. But I soon found out they knew exactly what they were doing, and were just as bad as the labels in their treatment of those who prefer to download albums instead of buying CDs.
It’s nice to see at least one artist in the business agrees.
I’m sure the Apple-bashers will be all over this one.
Starting in April you can get music tracks OTA on your BlackBerry. And they’re DRM-free. And you can transfer them to your computer. And all is right with the world. And iTunes is going out of business. And the iPhone is dead in the water.
Or something like that.
Universal’s had so many bad ideas on ways to hawk music it’s hard to keep up with them all. Still, I’ve tried.
Now one of their brilliant schemes — Total Disaster (a.k.a. Total Music) — is facing scrutiny from the Department of Justice.
Personally, I think Total Music is, well, a disaster. Still, I’m glad Universal’s moves are attracting some attention.
A good article on The Lefsetz Letter about the Stones deal with EMI. One portion of the article makes it clear that Mr. Lefsetz is as fond of Universal’s Doug Morris as I am:
Doug Morris is waiting for Congress to approve blowing up traders’ computers, possibly lynching them in the town square, he thinks he can beat this thing, he believes the good old days are just around the corner.
Too true.
What a busy week for Sony!
First, I assumed that they were going to offer their wares DRM-free from Amazon but not iTunes, and I speculated on what the labels were up to.
Then, they threw me a curve by being incredibly stupid, which diverted my attention briefly.
So a Brazilian ice cream maker has started a promotion where some of its Popsicles will instead contain a free iPod Shuffle.
Cool idea (pun intended). However, in looking at the pictures of what a winner looks like, I predict the next time we hear about this will be because stores have a lot of poked, prodded, and broken Popsicle packages as users try to determine if they’ve got a winner.
Just a few days ago BusinessWeek ran a story that Sony was looking to sell DRM-free music, thereby joining the other “big” labels (Universal, Warner, and EMI) in offering at least a part of their catalog DRM-free. There was no mention of iTunes; speculation was that, like Universal and Warner, iTunes would be avoided and Amazon would be the online store of choice.
Much has been made lately of the recent news that Warner began selling DRM-free music via Amazon. There was even talk about how three of the big four labels are now offering DRM-free music, so all that was needed was for Sony to get into line.Well, now there’s a story from BusinessWeek that Sony is negotiating DRM-free music sales as well.There’s a certain amount of rejoicing over this, but I’m still unimpressed.
So the net is abuzz with the story that Warner Music will sell DRM-free music through Amazon.
Numerous headlines call it a coup for Amazon, saying they beat Apple to the punch. And many are proclaiming it as a change of heart for Warner. It’s neither.
Yesterday I wrote about Universal CEO Doug Morris and how he claims all the mistakes the major labels have made (and are making) in regards to digital downloads are only because they “just didn’t know what to do”.
I’ve written numerous posts about Universal’s stupidity regarding their moves in relation to digital downloads and sales. Not only their actions to prop up the unworkable music subscription model, but also those designed to damage Apple’s iTunes store even at the expense of selling more of Universal’s own product.
Paul Thurrott believes shoppers think the year-old Zune 30 (you know, the huge, brown, Boat Anchor one) is suddenly a great MP3 player.
Paul uses an article by Macworld as an excuse to drool all over the “success” of the closeout brown Boat Anchor 30 (BA30) Zune being #1 on Amazon’s MP3 player list (it’s given away for $172). The black BA30 is also cheap, but even with a better color the extra $25 is too much, so it’s at #10 — behind five iPods.
A couple months ago I wrote about yet another subscription model which, naturally, Universal was backing. Well, let’s see how the Spiral Frog effort is doing, shall we? Well, Read/Write web says this:
“SprialFrog, the big music industry’s experiment with free music downloads, is bleeding money and considering hiring bloggers to improve their public profile.”
As I continue to fight off some sort of cold, or flu, or death, or whatever it is, it’s time for another review of recent headlines.
I’ve written about Radiohead’s latest album twice. First, like many people I thought distributing it themselves was a great move, and even bought the album, though I felt only a popular band like a Radiohead could pull this off.
BusinessWeek published a story about yet another move Universal is taking against Apple. Before we get to their latest, let’s review the recent shots Universal has fired:
As I mentioned a few days ago, Radiohead is selling their new album at a “name your own” price, bypassing the labels for initial distribution. I thought this was an important step for a major band to take, and though details on the download files were non-existent I paid $7 for the album. I did so because I thought Radiohead would get it right. In my own words:
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails has proclaimed the act a “free agent” from record labels. While we have to wait until some announcements regarding 2008 to find out just what NIN is up to, this looks dramatically different than what Radiohead did a few days ago. Gizmodo doesn’t seem to get that:
Paul Turrott has been laying low lately. He says it’s because he’s been working hard on his Microsoft Propaganda SuperSite blog, but I tend to think he was also ramping up for some serious Zune humping. He did not disappoint.
So the new Zunes are here. Stories are just rolling in since the embargo only recently lifted for the major outlets a little while ago (though smaller outlets trickled the word out, such as the Gizmodo picture above).
So Radiohead is eschewing the labels for their new album, and they’re distributing it themselves as well. An interesting move they should be able to pull off (curious if issues will occur on 10/10 when everybody tries to download it).
Amazon opened their MP3 store today, and it’s clear iTunes has legitimate competition since Amazon avoids the pitfalls that made other music sites a joke. However, through it all some curious questions arise, which I’ll get to below. Meanwhile, here’s why this new site is a valid alternative to iTunes:
So Universal has teamed up with SpiralFrog on a subscription service with a twist; the service is now out of beta and officially launched. SpiralFrog is unique among subscription services in that it’s subscription-less (at least for now). No monthly fee is required, the site is intended to be funded solely by advertising and your recurring visits:
Daring Fireball’s John Gruber had a lot to say in his article about ringtones and what he calls the “ringtones racket”. However, I disagree with part of his premise, and ultimately his conclusions. For other views on this subject here’s a great post from Epple, and Roughly Drafted touches on the subject as well.
Today Apple released the latest version of Logic in the form of Logic Studio. This is a huge update from Logic 7, and they’ve followed the “studio” concept of Final Cut Pro and bundled even more apps with it. They also cut the price in half, to $499.
Oil and water. Matter and anti-matter. Sony and Universal. These are apparently combinations that just don’t mix.The brilliant minds at the record labels have come up with a new idea for the holiday season. They’re going to sell “ringles.” Heh. Ringles. I just had to see that name again.
“What are you, a wise guy?”
What would happen if the three stooges tried to take on Apple’s iTunes Store? Well, now we know, because its happened.
Tackling the transfer of iTunes media from the PC to the Mac is complicated by the fact that not all data in iTunes is stored within the file itself. Date last played, ratings, number of plays, and potentially even album art are stored via an XML file. Simply transferring the data files (i.e., the MP3s and AACs) will not retain this data.
Well, I’m back from the “out of town” portion of my vacation. I still have a few days off and some projects planned at home, but I’ll get to blogging as well. For my first post since coming back I’ll highlight some of the stuff that went on while I was gone. This is stuff I may have written complete posts about had I been here.
So the mobile market is getting together to “take on” Apple’s iPhone in relation to music. What’s wrong with their offering? Well, let’s see:
1) The iPhone uses songs you already own (ripped from CDs or bought online) and syncs them beautifully based on criteria you specify in iTunes. Their phones, well, not really. The music you own? Play that at home, pal, on the phone you use ours.
2) It’s a subscription model. Oh goody, we need another one of these. Well, at the very least I’m sure Alexander Wolfe at Information Week will be happy. Subscription models fail, and it’s not hard to see why. People want to use the music they already own, and they don’t want to have to keep paying to play it. They also don’t like the idea of losing all their music if they miss a payment. Oh, and here’s a hint for Omnifone: If you need to quote the price of your service per week, then it’s too expensive.
In the guise of documenting the outage of LALA on its first day, Information Weak (the publication’s more realistic name) writer Alexander Wolfe takes shots at Apple’s iPod in this article, while also begging, groveling, and pleading with somebody, anybody, to join him in his love affair with the failed music rental model.
Steve Jobs was interviewed by Walt Mossberg yesterday at the Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things digital conference (the link includes a video as well as text summary of the interview).
Paul Thurrott weighed in with his thoughts on the interview, and its full of his THUD. Here are some of his comments:
In my previous post I wrote a disagreement with Bob Lefsetz regarding his rant on how Apple implemented iTunes Plus (i.e., DRM-free music). I thought Bob was wound a little tight, but the man’s entitled (we all are), and I like his site.
Now, just a few hours later, Bob has another rant up, and it seems he’s just shy of wearing a tin foil hat. The conspiracies are everywhere. Here is the complaint:
First, if you check you’ll see that The Lefsetz Letter is one of only thirteen sites I link to in my sidebar, so it goes without saying that I like the site a lot.
Having said that, in my opinion he’s off base in his rant today about iTunes Plus. The gist of his complaint is that you either see the iTunes Plus tracks (i.e., higher-quality and DRM-free) or the usual tracks from before today, but not both. As he states:
When Apple announced the deal with EMI that would allow them to sell EMI’s catalog with no DRM restrictions, and at a higher quality, the timetable for making these tracks available was May, 2007. Well, they made it with a full day to spare. With a new version of iTunes (7.2) yesterday, and the new content available today, “iTunes Plus” is now available.
So Paul Thurrott retracts his previous post about Microsoft selling one million Zunes. But he does so in a manner that makes it appear to be no big deal.
Paul specifically said in his original post that it was “not too shabby”. Further, it was a big enough deal for him to post it in the first place (and on a holiday, no less). Now that he has to retract it, well, hey, it’s only a month away (if it happens), so it’s apparently still some sort of accomplishment. Um, no.
Microsoft’s Zune player was released on 11/14 last year, and a dud pretty much right out of the box. Sales dropped so quickly after the first week that three weeks later Microsoft had to put on a brave face and say that sales were meeting expectations (really? they expected it to sell so badly?) and would reach one million by the end of June, 2007:
I thought about writing a rant. A rant from someone who’s been buying albums for over three decades, and still does. A rant against the idea that a typical album has two good songs and eight bad ones (I can count on both hands the albums I’ve bought I’d categorize that way). A rant about why the concept of an album is important, that it provides artists a full “canvas” upon which to tell a story. A rant that I don’t understand why people wouldn’t want to sit down and listen to a work as a whole. A rant that I would argue there are more movies with filler — I’d rather just play the “good” scenes and skip the rest — than there are albums the same way. Finally, a rant that the LP was not developed by the record companies for the purpose of shoveling crap work on people at a higher price than the single.
Amazon recently announced they will begin selling DRM-free music later this year. They have hooked up with EMI, who also inked a deal with Apple’s iTunes.
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