How long until it’s free?

I haven’t tried the new Beats music service. I’d be stunned if it’s not well-designed and utilitarian, I applaud their focus on mobile, but isn’t this really just PressPlay ten years later?

I know we want people to pay for music. The only problem is they are not. And we can either eradicate music on YouTube or rethink where we’re going.

We tried stamping out trading, that didn’t work so well. We’re already getting advertising monies from YouTube… The appropriate cliche here is “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” which is what the music industry has done with YouTube, to its credit and benefit.

However, if Warner Music had only authorized Spotify in the U.S. earlier, we might not be in this pickle. Timing is everything online. The Palm phone employing WebOS was a technical marvel, it was just too late, is Beats Music too late?

Curation…

We do live in the information age, and the more the better, to a point. But what we’ve learned in the past few years is it’s all about social. It’s less important that a track be best than everybody be listening to it. Come on, you excoriate the Top Ten on a regular basis, but the point is that’s where the ears are, those are the acts that attract people to the show. Do you really want to go to the show alone? Think about that… Just you and your favorite act. Sounds like fun to begin with, but if you can’t share it with anyone, the good feeling dissipates.

And it’s not an issue of exclusivity, all these streaming services have essentially the same music.

As for people being interested in what you’re listening to… No one cares, otherwise everybody would have 100,000 Twitter followers and the ability to break an act. We want to know what stars are listening to, tastemakers are listening to, and we want to know that everybody else is listening too, at least a modicum of like-minded people.

As for serving up songs…

I personally find it one of the most frustrating experiences in my lifetime. Radio is real time, you don’t know what’s next. But from Slacker to Pandora to iTunes Radio to Songza…I’m more interested in what’s coming next than what’s playing now. I keep hitting the skip button. It’s like looking at porn, it’s hard to concentrate on one visage when there’s an endless supply just a click away.

And speaking of iTunes Radio… Wow, that’s a nonstarter. Turns out we did not need another Internet radio service, one was enough. That’s how it always is with tech. There will be only one streaming giant. Because that’s where everybody will be! If you’re investing in a me-too streaming service, why don’t you just save your money and go to Vegas and play roulette.

As for getting people to pay for Beats…

Let me see, I don’t pay for Facebook, I don’t pay for Instagram, I don’t pay for Snapchat, I don’t pay for Twitter. Each and every one of these services may be fads, their essence might be incorporated into a new bundled entity the way standalone spellcheckers were incorporated into word processors, but one thing we know is they’re free. Hell, the word processor and spreadsheet and presentation software are now free with all new Mac and iOS devices!

So to believe that Beats is going to rewrite the history of payment…I don’t think so.

But they do have an amazing publicity campaign. And never underestimate the power of stars. But hate to tell Jimmy, Trent and Dre are passe, their fans are not gonna pony up, you need younger stars, Miley and Pitbull and…Jimmy might employ them, but really, you want me to pay for what I already get for free?

As for AT&T’s family plan…

Tying up with AT&T is like buying a ticket for the Titanic. AT&T’s lunch is being eaten by T-Mobile, a more nimble service that’s rewriting the rules of wireless. That’s right, soon we’ll all buy our handsets outright, we’ll all pay less for international calls. John Legere is cutting edge. Hell, he’s more rock and roll than Iovine, he wears a t-shirt, shows up where he’s uninvited, gets ejected and keeps on kicking the powers that be. He understands you position yourself as anti, as the underdog, and that you make inroads by being cheap. Hell, Legere even admits his service sucks in the boonies, but do you live in the boonies? Are you willing to have lousy service in the hinterlands if you pay a whole hell of a lot less?

So what we’ve learned here is the music business was caught flat-footed, it didn’t see the power of YouTube rearing its huge head. Not the first time the industry’s been left out, and not the last.

But YouTube isn’t forever, nothing is, otherwise we’d all be listening to 78s.

It’s a battle between Spotify and YouTube. Spotify’s in multiple countries and now even has a free service on mobile handsets. Furthermore, most people still don’t know how Spotify works. Are they gonna understands Beats?

Maybe, Jimmy’s a master marketer.

But no one was asleep in the streaming sphere, this is not headphones, run by ancient, nearly moribund companies, no matter how good their products were.

Marketing only goes so far.

And in the modern era it doesn’t last.

So today’s story is Beats Music, will it be tomorrow’s?

P.S. Making a deal with AT&T only is so 2007, so imitation Jobs. In this era of cacophony if you’re not everywhere, you’ll never make it. Furthermore, who can change their mobile phone plan on a whim? Except to go to T-Mobile, where they’ll pay you to do so! Hell, Beats would have been better off making a deal with Legere!

P.P.S. We live in a streaming era. If you want higher quality, lobby your congressperson, it’s all about bandwidth. As for Pono…if musicians were such good business people they wouldn’t be ripped off by their labels and their accountants. Be proud you can do one thing well, most people can’t even do that. But don’t assume since you won once, you’ll win tomorrow. Jimmy Iovine’s got a lot of pluck, but unless he’s willing to knock on everybody’s door, text them personally, he doesn’t have the power to move the masses when it comes to streaming services.

P.P.P.S. Enough with this curation fantasy. I don’t want a playlist for every hour of the day, for sex and swimming and cycling. I want certified, no tune-out tracks that I can tell everybody else about. With the noise cycle prevalent, it’s about fewer tracks, not more. Do you really think I want to waste time discovering music via your endless playlist? Just give me the hits, now. And I’ll listen to them ad infinitum. Hell, I’ve got tracks in my iTunes library I’ve listened to hundreds of times, but most only once. I don’t need more one-spinners, but more hundred players.

“David Pogue Talks To Mischievous T-Mobile CEO John Legere: The Full Interview”

It’s all about the individual. One person is shaking up mobile. One TRACK could shake up the music business, we don’t want playlists with a plethora.