Your files live on your handset.<\/p>\n
That’s what most people don’t know about the Spotify iPhone app.\u00c2\u00a0 That if you pay the monthly fee, not only can you stream anything you want online on your desktop, there’s automatic synching of approximately 2,000 tracks to your handheld.\u00c2\u00a0 So, it’s just like owning them.\u00c2\u00a0 And, you can stream the rest of the catalog if you’re in cell range.<\/p>\n
Rhapsody and MOG offer similar services.<\/p>\n
But so far, no paid music subscription platform has gained significant traction.<\/p>\n
This is a head-scratcher.\u00c2\u00a0 Apple’s not offering movies for free.\u00c2\u00a0 Why should music be free?<\/p>\n
It shouldn’t be.<\/p>\n
But it appears that the only company that’s going to be able to make headway in the music streaming\/subscription sphere is Apple.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s right, great subscription streaming apps exist today, but almost no one wants them!<\/p>\n
I keep getting e-mail from the Rdio PR person, do I want to talk to the CEO!\u00c2\u00a0 Do I want a comment!\u00c2\u00a0 No, Rdio is irrelevant.\u00c2\u00a0 Some hype upon release and temporary free use, then dead in the water.<\/p>\n
But when Steve Jobs graces the stage in Silicon Valley and announces that he’s seen the future of music and it’s subscription streaming, which believe me, he’s gonna do, people are going to fall over themselves to sign up, it’ll be like the Who in Cincinnati.\u00c2\u00a0 But instead of people dying, thank god, you’ll get Net gridlock, you won’t be able to get through to sign up.\u00c2\u00a0 If the servers don’t crash outright, they’re going to run at a snail’s pace.<\/p>\n
How did this happen?<\/p>\n
You’ve got to go back ten years.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, just a bit longer, to when Steve Jobs came back to Apple.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s been building customer trust as well as the content providers have been destroying it.\u00c2\u00a0 As powerful as any band, Steve’s now got a tribe of early adopters who will buy anything Apple offers, and will tell everybody who doesn’t have it how great it is.\u00c2\u00a0 Come on, if you haven’t been harangued by an Apple fan, you live in isolation in the Arctic.<\/p>\n
But it gets better for Apple.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got a support network, not only online and on the telephone, but at the Genius Bar.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, you can make an appointment to see an actual person, face to face!\u00c2\u00a0 And if you believe you’ve gotten ripped off, there’s a Fortune 500 company standing behind your product, not a one of a kind service that could go bankrupt at any minute, taking your money and music with it.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, Apple’s got credit card information.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just one click to buy the company’s latest offering.<\/p>\n
The only way to compete with Apple is to start off free.<\/p>\n
I’m not passing judgment, I’m just stating a fact.<\/p>\n
Imagine if a social network far superior to Facebook launched today.\u00c2\u00a0 Only you had to pay ten bucks a month to use it.\u00c2\u00a0 It would be a nonstarter.<\/p>\n
Look at Twitter, which is free.\u00c2\u00a0 For all the fanatical users, there are tons of naysayers, claiming the service is a wank, a complete waste of time. These same people forward any negative story about the microblogging service, they want to kill it.\u00c2\u00a0 Probably because they’re overwhelmed and they just don’t want to get up to speed, spend time on one more platform. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yes, people are overwhelmed, that’s why they stay with Apple.\u00c2\u00a0 Even if you’re better than Apple, you’re screwed.\u00c2\u00a0 Even if you’re cheaper than Apple you’re screwed.\u00c2\u00a0 Amazon can’t make a significant dent in Apple’s music retail market share.\u00c2\u00a0 Despite oftentimes blowing out product below cost.<\/p>\n
Spotify has social networking features already.<\/p>\n
But Ping gets all the attention.<\/p>\n
So, we can wait for an indeterminate point in the future, when Apple offers a streaming subscription and the rights holders bitch that their hands are tied by Steve Jobs, or the rights holders can authorize free services to compete, to get a leg up on Steve and Apple.<\/p>\n
That’s the only way Spotify can compete.\u00c2\u00a0 Spotify is superior in functionality to all its competitors, but the rights holders don’t want to make music free.\u00c2\u00a0 I can understand that.\u00c2\u00a0 But do they want to play into the hands of Steve Jobs?<\/p>\n
And, rights holders can always experiment.\u00c2\u00a0 Offering a short license to see if Spotify can convert free customers to paying ones.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, the public has lived through the loss of Napster and KaZaA and AudioGalaxy and…<\/p>\n
As for a Google music service?<\/p>\n
Google doesn’t have the credit cards.\u00c2\u00a0 And the public doesn’t trust the company as much as it does Apple.\u00c2\u00a0 And the Nexus One debacle proves that without a customer service infrastructure, you’re screwed.<\/p>\n
Then again, Spotify has no customer service infrastructure either, which is why a free launch is necessary, to build trust.<\/p>\n
The only way you can compete with established Net players is by starting off free.<\/p>\n
Theoretically, you can establish a whole new paradigm that charges.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, the iTunes software was free, it was the Trojan Horse that allowed Apple to ultimately sell music.<\/p>\n
So free is the best start.<\/p>\n
If you want to start at all.<\/p>\n
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