While Steve Jobs has been pontificating in NoCal, I’ve been reading the newspapers.\u00c2\u00a0 I was struck by an article in the "Wall Street Journal", saying that the Justice Department appears to be gearing up to sue Google.<\/p>\n
Do you use Google?<\/p>\n
As Dave Matthews would say, I use it everyday.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s just nothing as good.\u00c2\u00a0 Google is so good, it’s a parlor trick, with the "I’m Feeling Lucky" button delivering exactly what you’re looking for.<\/p>\n
I also employ Yahoo search.\u00c2\u00a0 For the different results it delivers.\u00c2\u00a0 But most people stay with Google, which I too use most of the time.\u00c2\u00a0 Because online, ONE SITE DOMINATES!<\/p>\n
I just don’t understand how the music business titans don’t get this.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s only one Amazon.\u00c2\u00a0 Only one Google.\u00c2\u00a0 And only one iTunes Music Store. To try and create a competitor is a wasted effort, unless it’s utterly superior.<\/p>\n
Did you read all that hype about the new search engine, cuil.com?\u00c2\u00a0 What a waste of time that turned out to be.\u00c2\u00a0 Slightly different interface delivering less information which wasn’t what I was looking for.<\/p>\n
Does Google need to be stopped?\u00c2\u00a0 Interesting question.\u00c2\u00a0 Peter Paterno doesn’t believe in antitrust.\u00c2\u00a0 He says the giants always falter.\u00c2\u00a0 And it appears he’s right regarding Microsoft.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only did they miss out on Google, they didn’t foresee Apple’s resurgence.\u00c2\u00a0 And by utilizing aged Jerry Seinfeld in incomprehensible ads, they’re only illustrating how out of touch they are and how far they’re going to fall.<\/p>\n
But irrelevant of your viewpoint on monopolies, you MUST understand that EVERY retail outlet is a click away online.\u00c2\u00a0 In real life, location and convenience and price matter.\u00c2\u00a0 Online, everybody’s in the same neighborhood and everybody’s got a low price, comparison shopping can be done by bot!\u00c2\u00a0 You distinguish yourself by the extras.\u00c2\u00a0 In Amazon’s case, its trustworthiness.\u00c2\u00a0 The company’s been around forever, will deliver your product and will take it back.\u00c2\u00a0 The company at the same price or marginally cheaper?\u00c2\u00a0 Will you even get the product?\u00c2\u00a0 Are they an authorized dealer?<\/p>\n
MySpace Music is a complete waste of time.\u00c2\u00a0 A failed effort before it’s really gotten started.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it won’t be better than iTunes.\u00c2\u00a0 In order to beat Apple, you’ve got to be better or cheaper.\u00c2\u00a0 Hard to see how MySpace can sell music more cheaply, since there are fixed costs having to do with publishers, etc.\u00c2\u00a0 As for better…\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, MySpace itself is such an horrendous user experience that to think they can out-Apple Apple is LAUGHABLE!<\/p>\n
This battle has been fought and won.\u00c2\u00a0 Per track downloads is owned by Apple.\u00c2\u00a0 At least until record companies, publishers and acts decide to play with LOWER prices, allowing third parties to distinguish themselves, and a new Steve Jobs comes around the bend, to fight Apple.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s not even a new Steve Jobs in the computer world, what are the odds one’s going to show up in online music?\u00c2\u00a0 Where the margins are low and the labels are ancient, trying to protect their old business model and not allowing anybody to make any money?<\/p>\n
Yes, you could lower prices at a new store, and keep them high at Apple.<\/p>\n
Then again, Apple can eat away at its own margins…<\/p>\n
And, removing copy protection at other stores hasn’t lessened Apple’s market share.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, if you think a hand-held player better than the iPod has been delivered, seventy plus percent of the public disagrees.<\/p>\n
You need a better player and a better service.<\/p>\n
But the labels want to hamstring all partners.\u00c2\u00a0 I can’t comprehend Nokia’s Comes With Music, how can the public?\u00c2\u00a0 You get the tunes for how long? And you can transfer them where?<\/p>\n
After a better player, the service that needs to be delivered offers up all you can eat for a low price, unrestricted.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s it.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the future of the music business, that’s what we’ve got today, it’s just that the industry is not being compensated for acquisition.<\/p>\n
Online retail is not like the physical world.\u00c2\u00a0 One company dominates in almost every sphere.\u00c2\u00a0 Give up the ghost on this one, and incentivize new partners to create innovative offerings.\u00c2\u00a0 But seeing as how the labels think innovation is a dirty word, that computers are the enemy, out to steal their business, this won’t happen, at least not until they lose their power and new rights holders are negotiating.<\/p>\n
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While Steve Jobs has been pontificating in NoCal, I’ve been reading the newspapers.\u00c2\u00a0 I was struck by an article in the "Wall Street Journal", saying that the Justice Department appears to be gearing up to sue Google. Do you use Google? As Dave Matthews would say, I use it everyday.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s just nothing as good.\u00c2\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business","category-online"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-lM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}