The Perfect Music Service

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Amazon announced yesterday that they’re releasing an online service (a “cloud”) that allows people to store their digital music and access it from various digital devices, though they still have some legal work to do in sorting out licensing issues with the record labels. I’m a big fan of Amazon and the announcement got me thinking about the different music services I use and what I really want out of a music service. Currently, I use iTunes to buy music and Pandora to discover music and Last.fm to log my top artists, albums and songs. I don’t subscribe to any of the steaming music services like Rhapsody and I don’t yet interact with music-based social networks, though I could with my Last.fm profile.

All-in subscription services like Rhapsody are very appealing -- all the music you want, on-demand for 10 bucks a month. The industry consensus seems to be that the subscription services generally target listeners that have more money than time and ownership services like iTunes target listeners with more time than money. I can afford the subscription service but there’s something about owning my own music library and being stuck with it that’s appealing to me. Sometimes having limited options can be a good thing.

All that said, using three different services is a pain and there are still some things I’d like the services to do that they don’t. In a perfect world, here’s what I think an all-in-one service would include:

  • Cloud: all of the music I own (my library) could be easily accessed through the service and on demand on my home or work computer, or on the road with my BlackBerry, iPad or iPod
  • Discovery: the service would include a discovery component with various stations that could be streamed to any device (similar to Pandora now) but I could easily switch between channels that include songs in my library and channels that don’t
  • Ownership: I could buy a song or album and add it to my library at any time
  • Social: my library and listening history would be captured regardless of where or how I’m listening to it and could be viewed by “friends” and vice-versa
  • Live shows: a calendar with dates and venues based on zip code for every artist in my library as well as an option to see recommendations for shows based on my library
  • Recommendations: an area where I can see recommended albums based on my music library/listening history/friends tastes
  • Music Information: artist profiles and news, upcoming releases, charts, etc.
  • Advertisements: Option to pay higher fee to remove them

Because of the economics of the music industry I realize that I’d likely be paying a monthly fee in addition to per-song fee/album fees, and that's ok.

The digital music industry will very likely continue to be fragmented for quite a long time and there’s no doubt that different listeners have different needs that can be met by different services. But I’d bet on the service that is able to flexibly and cost effectively blend ownership, discovery and social into one platform.

Milo

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I wish I had known about Milo when I wrote this post back in April of last year.  Milo's mission from their site:

Milo's mission is to track every product on every shelf of every store in real-time. We see ourselves as building a bridge between online and in-store commerce that empowers the consumer to access the best of both shopping worlds—all in one place.

Basically, with Milo, you can check in-store inventories and find the best in-store prices online.

Bridging the gap between offline shopping (a trillion dollar industry) and the internet is an enormous opportunity that Milo was able to take advantage of.

They started just a few months before I wrote this post, completed their Series A round in November of 2009 and were acquired this month by eBay for $75 million.  Nicely done.

 

Why Chrome will be free

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Rumor has it that Google's soon to be released OS will be free. I was thinking about why they would give out a very valuable product to users at no cost; surely they could price Microsoft out of some market share without going to zero?

 A couple thoughts:
  • 80% of online ad spending goes to Google
  • The vast majority of ad spend still happens offline
  • Cheaper operating systems will result in cheaper PCs
  • Cheaper PCs will result in more computer/internet use
  • More internet use leads to more attention online
  • More attention online leads to more ad spending online
  • 80% of online ad spending goes to Google
 That's why Chrome will be free; it's an investment that will shift attention online faster than the current pace.

542542...

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542 ...is a service that you can send a text message to that will answer any question you want for $0.99.

I saw the commercial earlier and I had to try it.

I texted, "Who played third base for the Detroit Tigers in 1984?"

They responded with, "Howard Johnson", the right answer, in under a minute.

Then I asked them, "Why doesn't private unemployment insurance exist?"

They responded in 41 minutes with, "Overall there is no private market due to the state benefit. It was set up as a social net for people out of work."

Not the insight I was looking for. But a pretty cool service nonetheless.

My BlackBerry - Part 2

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Blackberry-logoBack in January I wrote about post about all of the things I use my BlackBerry for and how I believe that handhelds are coming closer and closer to eliminating the need for personal computer use.  It's interesting to watch how this list increases over time.  Here's an updated list.

  • Phone (home and cell)
  • Texting
  • Email (work and personal)
  • Blogging (because the keyboard is so easy to use, I rarely feel the need to write on my laptop anymore)
  • News. I've setup the WSJ.com Reader on the device so I get real time news feeds from all of my favorite news outlets and blogs. I get more news through my BlackBerry than other format.
  • Personal calendar, address book, tasks and notes
  • Alarm clock
  • General web surfing
  • Facebook (I have the application though I rarely use it)
  • Camera
  • Watching video
  • Online radio (through Pandora)
  • Sports Radio (through Flycast)
  • Navigation (Google Maps is a great application when it works)
  • Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2009

What's Too Personal?

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Twitter_logo_header Here's the thing about Twitter and Facebook status updates that's really got me thinking.

Surely there are certain things that one can write but that they'd rather not share with the entire world, in real time. So, when one becomes inclined to 'Tweet" there must always be an assessment, even if subconscious, as to whether or not the musing is something that should be shared with the audience that's following the "Tweeter."

This assessment is of course made harder by the fact that the Tweeter's audience is always evolving, thus the thought required of this assessment increase over time.

Does this seem stressful to anyone else?

Mobile News

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WsjMobileReaderPhone

I mentioned in an earlier post that I use the WSJ Reader on my Blackberry which allows me to read news updates and my favorite WSJ columnists (Jenkins, Mossberg, Morgenstern, etc.) at no cost. Even better, it pulls in feeds from my favorite blogs (about 15-20) in real time. I'm convinced that I get more news and information from the reader than I do through any other medium (TV, newspaper, magazines, etc.).

Whenever I add another blog I think about how great this thing is...for me. But what's the WSJ getting out of it? Probably a few things:

  • Advertising fees (though very minimal, there's very little space for ads)
  • Click throughs: once in a while I'll wind up clicking through to their website to "get more information"
  • Branding/Loyalty: I've cancelled my newspaper subscription but WSJ remains top-of-mind for me and I continue to consume their product.
  • Word of mouth: because I'm reading columns and articles from the WSJ, I'll continue to talk and write about the WSJ
  • Upsell opportunity: they show ads for other Dow Jones products

But I think there's something much bigger and potentially brilliant going on here: The Wall street Journal has built a platform for all the news a reader could want that carries virtually zero distribution costs. Or, put another way, the WSJ Reader solves the two fundamental problems with a newspaper's business model: limited space and big costs. The jury is out on how well mobile attention can be monetized but my sense is that the WSJ is doing something pretty smart here...I'm sure I'll be writing more on this in the coming months.

My BlackBerry

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A lot has been made in recent weeks about Barack Obama being forced to go without his BlackBerry when he takes office later this month. I love the fact that we've elected a president that uses a BlackBerry -- clearly he's a hands on guy.

Anyway, I can feel Mr. Obama's pain as I wouldn't know what to do without my Curve, which I've had for about a year now.

Here are the things that I'm currently using the device for, in no particular order:

  • Phone (home and cell)
  • Texting
  • Email (work and personal)
  • Blogging (because the keyboard is so easy to use, I rarely feel the need to write on my laptop anymore)
  • News. I've setup the WSJ.com Reader on the device so I get real time news feeds from all of my favorite news outlets and blogs. I get more news through my BlackBerry than other format.
  • Personal calendar, address book, tasks and notes
  • Alarm clock
  • General web surfing
  • Facebook (I have the application though I rarely use it)
  • Camera 

And many people are doing much more than that...

There are still a few things that I still can't do on my BlackBerry that I wish I could, such as:

  • Easily view and edit MS Office docs
  • Watch video on Youtube
  • Easily use HTML email
  • iTunes (download and sync)
  • Stream live TV
  • Online radio (there's a way to do this I believe, I'm working on it)
  • Synchronize with my web browser (passwords, favorites, etc.)
  • Better web surfing (faster, more windows, flash, etc.)

Some of these things are coming soon, some require support from the service providers and some are simply limited by form factor. But for the most part I'm now at a point where I've become extremely reliant on my BlackBerry. There's a lot more progress coming to be sure but I'm convinced that the major handheld device makers (Blackberry/Apple/Palm) have built products/platforms that address the fundamental challenges of handheld computing. The development to come is simply icing on the cake.

Newspapers

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Paul Mulshine had a good column in the Wall Street Journal recently defending traditional journalism (newspapers) and criticizing the amateur bloggers that are putting them out of business.

He makes the point that because most bloggers aren't paid for their work they'll be less willing to, say, sit through a three hour school committee meeting and summarize the key points in an easy to read article. So in the future, the casual follower of events at the school will be left unaware of what transpired at the school committee meeting.

I agree with the Mr. Mulshine that, generally speaking, this is scary and would no doubt be a bad thing.

Here's where we differ: it's not going to happen.

Blogs and newspapers have fundamentally identical business models; they generate attention or "eyeballs" that can be monetized in the form of advertising fees. Some also charge nominal access fees though typically this doesn't generate significant revenue relative to ads. On a macro level it is this business model that dictates what does and doesn't get reported or blogged on. To make money, editors and bloggers have to answer a simple question: what will generate attention? If an article on the school committee meeting will generate eyeballs, then it will be reported on, or monetized.

Newspapers are disappearing not because people don't care about the school committee meeting, they're disappearing because people's attention is shifting online. Quickly. And the scalability of online advertising doesn't change the underlying business model.

Because many bloggers are unpaid, amateur, dishonest and uninteresting, Mr. Mulshine assumes that the industry will remain this way. But assuming there's always demand for information from honest, reliable sources, the blogging industry will slowly morph into more of what we know as traditional journalism, only better.

As is true with most industry changes, I think we'll find that the maturation of blogs and web content and the absence of newspapers is good for everyone -- including newspaper reporters.