Holy FUCK!  Did you watch Steve Jobs’ presentation at the Worldwide
Developer’s Conference??

It’s 1981 all over again.  MTV was seen as a sideshow.  A marginal effort
reaching few homes that wouldn’t impact the mainstream music business. But that
thesis was WRONG!  MTV REVOLUTIONIZED the music business.  But in order to
play, you had to have one thing…a video.

The U.K. acts had videos.  They used them as promotional tools.  For markets
where it was hard to get on the radio.  The result??  U.K. acts not only
dominated the early days of MTV, they went on to dominate the U.S RECORD CHARTS!  A Flock Of Seagulls.  Culture Club.  DURAN DURAN!  The only radio station
playing this stuff in the U.S. was MAYBE KROQ.  Radio programmers thought they were in control.  Major labels thought that radio was their marketplace.  When it
turned out that MTV was the driver.  These new acts were in HEAVY rotation on
MTV and they started to sell like GANGBUSTERS!  To the point where radio
started playing the MTV ACTS!  Oh, in the early days it was Human League and Soft
Cell, but then as time went on, as MTV entered TENS OF MILLIONS OF HOMES, the
aforementioned Duran Duran became SUPERSTARS!

Oh, history is being rewritten now.  But, let us not forget, the American
labels were slow to the game.  Are they going to be slow to the game in
PODCASTING??

If you watch Mr. Jobs demonstrate the new version of iTunes incorporating
podcasting, your jaw will drop.  It’s like the iTunes Music Store, but everything
is FREE!  Why pay ninety nine cents for a copy protected track when you can
get ENDLESS entertainment FOR FREE!

Oh, it’s even better than that.  It’s what the labels have dreamed of
forever…well, those who know the label business better than the labels themselves.  You see you can SUBSCRIBE to a podcast.  Yes, AUTOMATICALLY, every time there’s a new podcast, it will be downloaded into your iTunes library.  AND, when you plug in your iPod, it will be seamlessly transferred to the device, where
you can listen to it ANYWHERE!

I mean have you used the iTunes Music Store?  It’s seamless, and FAST!  And
now, there’s going to be all of this free entertainment.

But what to listen to you ask?

How long do you think it’s going to take until there’s a chart.  And you know
how charts work, those at the top end up getting MORE hits, becoming MORE
popular, to the point where complete unknowns, just like MTV, are going to become
STARS!

I mean why listen to the commercials on terrestrial radio when you can just
plug your iPod into your car radio and listen to what YOU want to WHEN you want
to!!!  Terrestrial radio…your model is DEAD!

And this is the major labels’ worst nightmare.  This is why they’ve been
suing to halt P2P, not because of piracy, but because they’re fearful of LOSING
CONTROL!

And that they’re going to do.  Not only are they not going to be able to
control these new podcasters with their strong-arm tactics, using their twentieth
century model, they’re not even going to PROVIDE THEIR WARES TO THESE PEOPLE! 
FORCING THEM TO USE INDIE PRODUCT, DISTRIBUTED BY LABELS THAT KNOW ALL
EXPOSURE IS GOOD!!!  THAT IT’S ABOUT BREAKING ACTS, NOT PRESERVING AN OLD BUSINESS MODEL!!!

The major labels are in the process of blowing it in podcasting the same way
they blew it in P2P.  The major labels should IMMEDIATELY license podcasters. 
Charge them a fee to air their wares.  Oh, it’s complicated, but to do
otherwise is to not only leave a ton of money on the table, but to insure your
extinction!!!  The key, just like with P2P, is to get as many people as possible to
be exposed to your wares and to CHARGE FOR IT!

Satellite radio???  Why does Steve Jobs need Sirius in iPods if he’s got
PODCASTING???

Think about it.  For all of last week’s scuttlebutt of low iPod demand, which
was untrue, in fact, Mr. Jobs is now ENSURING that the iPod will DOMINATE!  I
mean buy a competing product and be left out of the podcasting REVOLUTION??? 
Oh, you can download podcasts elsewhere, and transfer them to another MP3
device, like you can do with music today, but it’s not seamless, like it is with
iTunes and the iPod.  EASE OF USE BABY!!!  THAT’S what Apple is delivering. 
As the major labels try to cripple discs, Apple is developing NEW ways for the
public to be exposed to MORE creative work EASIER than ever before!

And isn’t it funny that it’s called podcasting anyway.  Really, it’s just
MP3s. But, hit products have momentum, just like hit records.  Adam Curry called
it podcasting to piggyback on the iPod.  And it WORKED!

Commercial radio podcasting…that’s like HBO with commercials, that is, of
course, if HBO had the programming of second-rate networks like UPN.

Satellite radio??  You can’t have commercials.  You’ve got to be available
easily.  That’s what factory installation of radios is all about.  Sirius is
taking the tack of broadcasting the work of experts unavailable elsewhere.  Could
work.  XM has taken the tack of being the best music filter out there.  Hell,
there’s always room at the top.  People will pay for a premium product. 
That’s what Apple has proven.  Just as long as Zellner and the new crew don’t fuck
it up, misunderstanding satellite’s mission.  That it can’t be narrow and
predictable like terrestrial radio, but must be wide and renegade, like podcasts,
but BETTER!

It’s just astounding to watch.  The major labels think they’re in control,
but they’re not.  They’re locking up the product, suing customers, all the while
MISSING the future, which, stunningly, is right in front of them.

The future is about niche.  And getting more people into more music.  You can
think otherwise, actually try to legislate, bully and sue.  But you’re not
going to win.  Because kids half your age, if not younger, are constantly
developing new paradigms.  The key is to MONETIZE these paradigms, not try to
eviscerate them.

Get on the podcast bandwagon.  Issue compulsory licenses to podcasters.  Sue
anybody who uses your material WITHOUT a license.  But don’t try to impede
progress, don’t try to stop the future.  It’s happening.  It’s here.  Join in. 
Have fun.  And make money.

(Go to: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/wwdc05/ to see the Jobs speech.  He starts talking about podcasting at approximately 6:50 in.  You can drag the
cursor to this point to start there.  Be sure to watch the video in QuickTime
7.  You can enlarge the image without losing definition.  Yesterday, a Windows
prerelease version of the software was posted on Apple’s Website, you can get
it at: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/.)