1

Rental.  Streaming.  Subscription.

Remember those three, they’re the key to the future.  Much more important than the Situation’s GTL.  (Gym, tan, laundry for the uninitiated.)

2

You can’t compete with Steve Jobs.  You can get on the Apple bandwagon, but if you’re tying in with a competitor, you’re just tarnishing your image.

Yes, if Apple comes calling, make that deal.  Look at what it’s done for Coldplay.  Chris Martin is wailing as I write this.  Very well.  Not competing with Mr. Jobs, but riding on his coattails.  In his very own vehicle behind the master.  Chris loses nothing in comparison.

But most so-called artists today do.  They’re so busy selling out, they lose touch with what it is they’re truly selling, which is music, which is art. They say that the public is inured to commercialism, that endorsements are a way of life, that you can’t do it without corporate money.  But that’s short term thinking by businessmen looking to line their wallets, not caring a whit whether the performers they’re shoveling down our throats sustain.  Yes, once music is just another product, it loses its specialness.

In other words, if you’re an artist, RUN from commercialism.  It’s your only hope.  Because you pale in comparison to Steve Jobs.  You can’t do his job better than he can.  But Steve Jobs can’t play music.  Can’t write, can’t perform.  He’s put his 10,000 hours in developing technology.  Your only hope is to practice really hard and sell your essence…music.

Despite Chris Martin’s cheeky performance, Apple is no longer a music company.  It’s like thinking Sony is a music company.  Rights holders can bitch that Apple has hijacked their business, and now with Ping, that might be more true than ever, but the future is not Apple.  The future is not Live Nation.  Certainly not Universal.  The future is music.

And it hasn’t been about music for far too long.  It’s been about fame.  But no musician is as famous as Steve Jobs.  Think about that.  And think small.  Intimate.  Don’t start trying to reach everybody, start trying to touch just a few.  Think of it like love, not commercialism.

3

How impressive is Apple?

It’s got stores cooler than Tower Records ever was.  In a digital world, it’s triumphing in the analog sphere.  Think about that.

Yes, Steve trumpeted Apple’s retail success.  Take a peek at the Shanghai Apple Store, makes you want to go.

And every iPod is improved.  Then again, did you notice the absence of a new Classic?  That illustrates how Apple’s no longer about music.  The true fan, who needs to schlep his entire collection on vacation, he’s been abandoned, in favor of casual gamers.

Yes, multiplayer games, that’s where the excitement is.

Apple’s got demons and swordsmen on hand-held devices, and the music industry still thinks people are going to play plastic guitars in front of TVs.  Shows you who understands the future.

4

Music was the pretense, but this presentation was truly about television, the Apple TV.  Which, priced at $99, will blow out this holiday season. That’s truly a staggering price.  Apple fanboys can buy one as a souvenir, like merch at a concert, to show their friends more than use.

But in introducing the new Apple TV, Steve Jobs revealed the future of music.

Steve said people don’t want to store their movies.  They don’t want to manage them.  They want them instantly, on the TV.

And casual viewers might think he’s building a business renting TVs and movies, but those thinkers would believe Apple cares about selling music.  No, music was a platform for selling iPods, and eventually iPhones and iPads.  And the iTunes movie and TV rentals are just a demonstration, a minor business.  The real key is streaming Netflix.

Have you been following this story?  While Blockbuster languishes, dying a slow death like brick and mortar music retail, Netflix has gone into the streaming business.  The future.  They’re locking in deals.

You could stream via certain TVs.  A PS3.  Other set-top boxes. But now it’s even easier to get in on the action via Apple TV.  You pay a small amount per month, and you can stream a ton of product.  Just keep paying.

Rental.  Streaming.  Subscription.

You rent these Netflix movies.  They stream to your TV.  And you pay every month for the privilege.

This was the essence of today’s Apple presentation.  This is the future of music.  Don’t say people won’t rent, Netflix is gigantic, incredibly fantastic and successful.  Reed Hastings will tell you the future is streaming.  And you’ve got to subscribe to participate.  Oh, you can rent individual shows on iTunes, but that’s like being pecked to death by ducks.  Sure, you can buy music on iTunes, but don’t you want to be able to play whatever you want, wherever you want, for a small sum of money per month?

It’s just a matter of when we get there.  When the rights holders realize that they’ve just got to follow Steve Jobs’ model.  He’s given them the blueprint.  He’s done the research.  License others before he ends up dominating the music market too.