{"id":3305,"date":"2010-09-01T13:58:10","date_gmt":"2010-09-01T21:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=3305"},"modified":"2010-09-01T13:58:10","modified_gmt":"2010-09-01T21:58:10","slug":"steve-jobs-in-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2010\/09\/01\/steve-jobs-in-concert\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Jobs In Concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

1<\/span><\/p>\n

Rental.\u00c2\u00a0 Streaming.\u00c2\u00a0 Subscription.<\/p>\n

Remember those three, they’re the key to the future.\u00c2\u00a0 Much more important than the Situation’s GTL.\u00c2\u00a0 (Gym, tan, laundry for the uninitiated.)<\/p>\n

2<\/span><\/p>\n

You can’t compete with Steve Jobs.\u00c2\u00a0 You can get on the Apple bandwagon, but if you’re tying in with a competitor, you’re just tarnishing your image.<\/p>\n

Yes, if Apple comes calling, make that deal.\u00c2\u00a0 Look at what it’s done for Coldplay.\u00c2\u00a0 Chris Martin is wailing as I write this.\u00c2\u00a0 Very well.\u00c2\u00a0 Not competing with Mr. Jobs, but riding on his coattails.\u00c2\u00a0 In his very own vehicle behind the master.\u00c2\u00a0 Chris loses nothing in comparison.<\/p>\n

But most so-called artists today do.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, once music is just another product, it loses its specialness.<\/p>\n

In other words, if you’re an artist, RUN from commercialism.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s your only hope.\u00c2\u00a0 Because you pale in comparison to Steve Jobs.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t do his job better than he can.\u00c2\u00a0 But Steve Jobs can’t play music.\u00c2\u00a0 Can’t write, can’t perform.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s put his 10,000 hours in developing technology.\u00c2\u00a0 Your only hope is to practice really hard and sell your essence…music.<\/p>\n

Despite Chris Martin’s cheeky performance, Apple is no longer a music company.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like thinking Sony is a music company.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 The future is not Live Nation.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly not Universal.\u00c2\u00a0 The future is music.<\/p>\n

And it hasn’t been about music for far too long.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s been about fame.\u00c2\u00a0 But no musician is as famous as Steve Jobs.\u00c2\u00a0 Think about that.\u00c2\u00a0 And think small.\u00c2\u00a0 Intimate.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t start trying to reach everybody, start trying to touch just a few.\u00c2\u00a0 Think of it like love, not commercialism.<\/p>\n

3<\/span><\/p>\n

How impressive is Apple?<\/p>\n

It’s got stores cooler than Tower Records ever was.\u00c2\u00a0 In a digital world, it’s triumphing in the analog sphere.\u00c2\u00a0 Think about that.<\/p>\n

Yes, Steve trumpeted Apple’s retail success.\u00c2\u00a0 Take a peek at the Shanghai Apple Store, makes you want to go.<\/p>\n

And every iPod is improved.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, did you notice the absence of a new Classic?\u00c2\u00a0 That illustrates how Apple’s no longer about music.\u00c2\u00a0 The true fan, who needs to schlep his entire collection on vacation, he’s been abandoned, in favor of casual gamers.<\/p>\n

Yes, multiplayer games, that’s where the excitement is.<\/p>\n

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.\u00c2\u00a0 Shows you who understands the future.<\/p>\n

4<\/span><\/p>\n

Music was the pretense, but this presentation was truly about television, the Apple TV.\u00c2\u00a0 Which, priced at $99, will blow out this holiday season. That’s truly a staggering price.\u00c2\u00a0 Apple fanboys can buy one as a souvenir, like merch at a concert, to show their friends more than use.<\/p>\n

But in introducing the new Apple TV, Steve Jobs revealed the future of music.<\/p>\n

Steve said people don’t want to store their movies.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t want to manage them.\u00c2\u00a0 They want them instantly, on the TV.<\/p>\n

And casual viewers might think he’s building a business renting TVs and movies, but those thinkers would believe Apple cares about selling music.\u00c2\u00a0 No, music was a platform for selling iPods, and eventually iPhones and iPads.\u00c2\u00a0 And the iTunes movie and TV rentals are just a demonstration, a minor business.\u00c2\u00a0 The real key is streaming Netflix.<\/p>\n

Have you been following this story?\u00c2\u00a0 While Blockbuster languishes, dying a slow death like brick and mortar music retail, Netflix has gone into the streaming business.\u00c2\u00a0 The future.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re locking in deals.<\/p>\n

You could stream via certain TVs.\u00c2\u00a0 A PS3.\u00c2\u00a0 Other set-top boxes. But now it’s even easier to get in on the action via Apple TV.\u00c2\u00a0 You pay a small amount per month, and you can stream a ton of product.\u00c2\u00a0 Just keep paying.<\/p>\n

Rental.\u00c2\u00a0 Streaming.\u00c2\u00a0 Subscription.<\/p>\n

You rent these Netflix movies.\u00c2\u00a0 They stream to your TV.\u00c2\u00a0 And you pay every month for the privilege.<\/p>\n

This was the essence of today’s Apple presentation.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the future of music.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t say people won’t rent, Netflix is gigantic, incredibly fantastic and successful.\u00c2\u00a0 Reed Hastings will tell you the future is streaming.\u00c2\u00a0 And you’ve got to subscribe to participate.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, you can rent individual shows on iTunes, but that’s like being pecked to death by ducks.\u00c2\u00a0 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?<\/p>\n

It’s just a matter of when we get there.\u00c2\u00a0 When the rights holders realize that they’ve just got to follow Steve Jobs’ model.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s given them the blueprint.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s done the research.\u00c2\u00a0 License others before he ends up dominating the music market too.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Rental.\u00c2\u00a0 Streaming.\u00c2\u00a0 Subscription. Remember those three, they’re the key to the future.\u00c2\u00a0 Much more important than the Situation’s GTL.\u00c2\u00a0 (Gym, tan, laundry for the uninitiated.) 2 You can’t compete with Steve Jobs.\u00c2\u00a0 You can get on the Apple bandwagon, but if you’re tying in with a competitor, you’re just tarnishing your image. Yes, if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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":[4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Rj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3305","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3306,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3305\/revisions\/3306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}