Music
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In what appears to be a deal with the devil, Hollywood (20th Century Fox, Paramount and Warner Brothers) has decided to join forces with the popular peer-to-peer technology maker, BitTorrent, to create an online store will offer thousands of classic movies and television shows, as well as a large library of PC games and music videos.
It an important development from a number of different angles but one thing resonated with me is how the movie/video industry has addressed the P2P issue in a much different way than the music industry. Rather than try to bludgeon the video world legally, Hollywood has decided to play ball and create win-win situations. These deals don’t mean free video downloads will evaporate but at least Hollywood is trying to address the P2P in a pro-active way rather than following the music industry’s nasty legal agenda.
Can you imagine what would have happened if the music industry has co-oped Napster, which was a wonderful discovery tool (see my earlier post today on the need for discovery tools), instead of treating it like the devil? Napster’s emasculation was a sad development for a service with so much potential. Who knows, maybe Napster could have been a bigger and better iTunes if it was nurtured rather than neutered. Who knows whether the alliance between Bit Torrent and Hollywood will be successful but at least they’re trying.
For more, check out Mathew Ingram, who believes the Bit Torrent-Hollywood deal is doomed to fail, and IP Democracy, which points to the fact DRM issues could stop consumers from using the new service.
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Written by Mark Evans on February 26th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on video and Main Page and Music.
The latest issue of Wired Magazine (a healthy 284-pages, including the holiday buying guide) arrived today with a cover story on YouTube ("YouTube Grows Up"). I haven't got around to reading it yet but it got me thinking about the many similarities between YouTube and Napster.
Both services came out of nowhere and quickly became popular with millions of users looking for free content. Napster, unfortunately, incurred the wrath of the music industry, which was far from prepared to consider the idea of selling music on the Web. On the other hand, YouTube's popularity came at a time when the large content producers, broadcasters, etc. had already realized there was a new distribution model to be leveraged even if the business models weren't fully-baked yet. While Napster got lawsuit-ed into oblivision (well, neutered and eventually sold to Roxio as a shell of its former self), YouTube was snapped up by Google for $1.6-billion, and its founders - Chad Hurley and Steve Chen - are hailed as entrepreneurs heroes.
So what's the difference between the two players? Napster was clearly ahead of its time, and the music industry didn't have the time, energy or creatively to counter-attack or strike a deal with Shawn Fanning. Meanwhile, YouTube's time was/is nearly perfect because everyone knew video was going to be big on the Web, and had started to gear up for it. It didn't hurt that Apple launched the video iPod, which hammered home the "hello, video is here" message.
Another difference is YouTube has been able to reach licensing agreements with content owners, while Napster failed to bring any of the major labels onside. Of course, it's still left to be seen whether Google can turn YouTube into a business (aside from making it yet another platform for AdSense). I wonder whether Napster would have enjoyed the same kind of adoration if Fanning had started it in late-2004 or late-2005 rather than 1999. Would it have made a difference? Would the record labels have embraced it as an exciting new way to distribute content? Who knows, it might have even been a legitimate rival to iTunes.
For more thoughts, check out Peter Cashmore, eHub and, of course, Mark Cuban.
Written by Mark Evans on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Web 2.0 and video and Main Page and Music.
If you thought the Recording Industry Association of America's legal battle against people who downloaded music for free was vicious, you ain't seen nothing yet when it comes to the war being waged against Russian's AllofMP3.com, which lets people buy CDs for $1 to $2. In the latest skirmish, Visa International has suspended its credit card service to AllofMP3, which in turn has decided to embrace an ad-supported business model that will see it give away music for free. If you've been using AllofMP3's service, you should cash in your credits soon because the company will also adopt technology that will force its users to play downloaded music on AllofMP3's software. And you'll only be able to play it on one computer at a time. The question of whether AllofMP3 is legitimate hinges on how Russian's copyright laws are interpreted. AllofMP3 claims it's operating by the law of the land by handing over 15% of its revenue to the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society. The music industry, which is still fighting the free phenomena seven years after Napster appeared on the scene, refutes this idea. Of course, AllofMP3's future could hinge on whether Russia wants to get into the World Trade Organization. If the WTO insists on AllofMP3's shutdown as part of Russia's admittance into the WTO, the little music service that could may be no more pretty soon.
Written by Mark Evans on October 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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In my Web 2.0 world, money talks as much as cool, new ideas and services. This is why MySpace's move into the digital music business is so intriguing because it's another way one of the world's most popular online destinations is trying to create a viable business. MySpace plans to sell songs from three million independent bands through an arrangement with Shawn Fanning's Snocap. “The goal is to be one of the biggest digital music stores out there,†MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe told the New York Times. “Everyone we’ve spoken to definitely wants an alternative to iTunes and the iPod. MySpace could be that alternative.†No doubt, this is an ambitious strategy but fraught with many questions. For example, how much sales appeal will these three million bands actually have? MP3.com, for example, painfully discovered there was little interest when it attempted to sell non-mainstream music a few years ago. Another question is whether MySpace "members" have any interest in spending money online and, if so, how much? We're talking about teenagers who have disposeable income but how much will be left for MySpace digital music after clothes, wireless bills, etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing MySpace's plans because any effort to exploit a user base of 106 million members is a positive - and there's lot of good things about diversifying your revenue base beyond advertising. As for MySpace creating an alternative to iTunes and the iPod, that could be a Don Quixote-like assignment. If MySpace really wants to get into the digital music business, it would be better off trying to carve off its own niche rather than trying to knock off an institution such as iTunes. Perhaps it could position itself as the place to discover undiscovered bands. Mathew Ingram also has questions about the "sale-ability" of MySpace's three million band universe, and he makes a good point that the traditional record companies are the ones who really should be worried. Rob Hyndman is far more bullish, suggesting the music labels will be "eager to to get first dibs on whatever the MySpace model manages to develop".
Technorati tags: MySpace, iTunes
Written by Mark Evans on September 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
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Orb Networks today announced that consumers have enjoyed a record 66 million minutes -- the equivalent of a whopping 125 years -- of digital media (recorded videos, TV, music, etc.) streamed from their home computer to a mobile phone, PDA or laptop using the free Orb MyCasting service. Orb stated that all this streaming has occurred in just 19 months since Orb's inception.
I've used
Orb's software in the past to stream my personal TV recordings as well as
stream live TV. Quite useful when I'm travelling and the hotel doesn't offer
FOX News or the
YES Network.
The nice thing about Orb is that the software is free and integrates quite nicely with Windows Media Center Edition. My only complaint is that Orb buffers the video, so it makes it difficult to "channel surf". Also, if there is congestion, it takes awhile for Windows Media Player (or RealPlayer) to rebuffer.
That's why I like
SightSpeed 5.0's channel surfing capabilities, which doesn't require buffering. SightSpeed 5.0 is a VoIP/video-over-IP application by day and a cool streaming TV application by night. I was able to channel surf with amazing speed and amazing video quality using this software. Go check out
my review of SightSpeed.
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VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on August 22nd, 2006 with no comments.
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The
BBC has a story on how the British Phonographic Industry wants political leaders getting together at the G8 Summit to talk about Allofmp3.com, the Russian music service selling music for 10% of regular prices.
Allofmp3.com claims it's doing nothing wrong because it "operates in full compliance with all Russian laws". AllofMP3, which is the second-most popular music downloading site in the U.K., is an interesting beast because the fact you have to pay to play allays some or much of the guilt felt by many consumers who had been shying away from free services such as Kazaa and BitTorrent but not quite willing to use iTunes yet. Granted, paying $1.42 for Rihanna's
hot, new CD,
"A Girl Like Me", doesn't seem quite right but it's on the up and up until someone (
Vladamir Putin, the RIAA?) says it's not. For now, the G8 should ignore the music industry's pleas for help so it can focus on the real issues such as the growing crisis in the Middle East.
Written by Mark Evans on July 16th, 2006 with no comments.
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While billionaires such as Rupert Murdoch storm into the Internet with major acquisitions, Virgin chairman Sir Richard Branson is taking a different tactic that seems Luddite in comparison. While Virgin just launched an online music site called Virgin Digital, Sir Richard concedes there is much more the company could do on the Web. "One of the problems is I do things I'm very interested in personally, and I don't do the Web very much," he said during an interview earlier today after Virgin unveiled plans for a two-day music festival in Toronto this September.
Written by Mark Evans on June 30th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Web 2.0 and Main Page and Music.