This is a non-story.<\/p>\n
Amazon is a money-losing company run by an egomaniac that gets more press than it deserves.\u00c2\u00a0 It keeps on changing strategy.\u00c2\u00a0 Building distribution methods and then changing course when it finds they’re unprofitable.\u00c2\u00a0 And, speaking of profits, the company derives a large part of its income from selling USED items.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, they make more selling a USED CD than a new one.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet, the major labels see the Seattle company as its savior.\u00c2\u00a0 Demonstrating their ignorance once again.<\/p>\n
Despite the brand name, Amazon doesn’t sell that many discs.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, it sells them via the Net, but it’s dwarfed by big box retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy.\u00c2\u00a0 And, if having a foothold in CDs gave one an advantage in the digital sphere, why hasn’t Wal-Mart’s music store taken off?\u00c2\u00a0 Especially since the tracks are CHEAPER!<\/p>\n
A subscription service.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s not call it that.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s call it RENTAL!<\/p>\n
If rental were such a good deal, if the public found it so appealing, why is Blockbuster on the verge of disaster?\u00c2\u00a0 Why are people BUYING so many DVDs when they can rent them so cheaply?\u00c2\u00a0 America has an ownership culture.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, in the future there might be a migration to service, but not TODAY!\u00c2\u00a0 Not until a much younger set comes of age.<\/p>\n
Let’s see how you sell this.\u00c2\u00a0 For fifteen bucks a month you can have access to ALL the music.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, not the Beatles or Led Zeppelin.\u00c2\u00a0 And not every track on every album…\u00c2\u00a0 And, if you don’t keep paying, you lose IT ALL!\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, sounds more like radio than conventional music purchasing.<\/p>\n
And what are the odds that independent company Amazon can create a system that actually works, when its Seattle counterpart Microsoft has been unable to do this?\u00c2\u00a0 I mean maybe if Google moved into the sphere I might be impressed.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, Google Video is a disaster, and rather than deliver a quality product without glitches, Google just labels all its efforts "beta", so you’ll forgive them.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what we need, a BETA music service to compete with Apple’s seamless solution.<\/p>\n
Amazon IS correct in deciding to deliver files along with CDs.<\/p>\n
But the fucked up labels can’t agree on a price.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though you can buy a CD and rip it FOR FREE!\u00c2\u00a0 Paying NOTHING extra for the files.<\/p>\n
Oh yeah, copy protection will foil that.\u00c2\u00a0 And destroy your business, just ask kicked upstairs Andy Lack.\u00c2\u00a0 And then there’s the ridiculous position of the RIAA that ripping is illegal.\u00c2\u00a0 What’s next, is the RIAA gonna post a cop in every kid’s basement?\u00c2\u00a0 THIS is a strategy that’s gonna win.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, after seven years, hasn’t the RIAA realized a legal solution IS NOT the answer?<\/p>\n
And Sony discontinued the Bean.\u00c2\u00a0 And Creative keeps hemorrhaging money.\u00c2\u00a0 But somehow AMAZON is gonna come up with a product that will look better and function as well as an iPod.\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, are you DREAMING?<\/p>\n
It takes software AND hardware.\u00c2\u00a0 And Apple has a huge investment in both, has for over twenty five years.\u00c2\u00a0 You think this isn’t an advantage?\u00c2\u00a0 Or, better yet, you think two separate companies,\u00c2\u00a0 Amazon and its hardware partner, share the same desires, are gonna be on an equal path?\u00c2\u00a0 Especially with Amazon’s history of screwing its partners, a la Toys R Us?<\/p>\n
One of the fucked up things about conventional journalism, a la the "Wall Street Journal" and "New York Times", is that they’re so busy being evenhanded that they miss the story, there’s no analysis.\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t Paul Krugman say if the President declared the earth was flat the paper would present this view reasonably, and not say he’s OUT OF HIS MIND?<\/p>\n
And yes, Mr. Krugman is on the editorial page of the "Times", but his beat doesn’t include technology, and Tom Friedman rarely addresses it.\u00c2\u00a0 And therefore one is DRIVEN to the Net to get the real skinny on a story, from people not enthralled by that bozo Jeff Bezos.<\/p>\n
There IS a subscription business.\u00c2\u00a0 Real’s Rhapsody is satisfying the demand.<\/p>\n
It’s just not a mainstream business today.<\/p>\n
And, what ever happened to the hype about Yahoo Music?\u00c2\u00a0 Heard anything about THAT subscription service recently?<\/p>\n
Really.\u00c2\u00a0 The labels hate Apple because the Cupertino company knows more about its customers than they do.\u00c2\u00a0 But rather than wake up to reality, they want to throw in with new players willing to throw money down a hole playing by their rules unsuccessfully, like the new Napster.<\/p>\n
How many times do we have to see this movie?\u00c2\u00a0 Of the labels proffering services the public doesn’t want?<\/p>\n
The public wants to OWN a LOT of files for a CHEAP price.\u00c2\u00a0 This is what’s going to end up happening.\u00c2\u00a0 This IS what’s happening, via P2P and ripping and hard drive swapping.\u00c2\u00a0 Can’t the industry get in bed with the consumer instead of asshole businessmen looking to make a killing?<\/p>\n
Really.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t even bother to call me when this Amazon service goes live, if it even launches at all.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s IRRELEVANT!<\/p>\n
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This is a non-story. Amazon is a money-losing company run by an egomaniac that gets more press than it deserves.\u00c2\u00a0 It keeps on changing strategy.\u00c2\u00a0 Building distribution methods and then changing course when it finds they’re unprofitable.\u00c2\u00a0 And, speaking of profits, the company derives a large part of its income from selling USED items.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-5f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325","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=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}