{"id":355,"date":"2006-03-15T00:15:59","date_gmt":"2006-03-15T07:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2006\/03\/15\/broadband-penetration\/"},"modified":"2006-03-15T00:15:59","modified_gmt":"2006-03-15T07:15:59","slug":"broadband-penetration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2006\/03\/15\/broadband-penetration\/","title":{"rendered":"Broadband Penetration"},"content":{"rendered":"

You’ve got to read this article: Broadband Penetration Increase<\/a>
Bottom line, 68% of Web-users now connect via broadband.<\/p>\n

Somehow, the record labels think it’s all about iPods.\u00c2\u00a0 That the revolution won’t be complete until everybody has a hand-held music device, if ever.\u00c2\u00a0 But the iPod is the explosion.\u00c2\u00a0 The revolution comes with broadband penetration.<\/p>\n

Broadband jump-started Napster.\u00c2\u00a0 Acquiring files at 56k is just too damn slow except to do on a whim.\u00c2\u00a0 But back in 2000, only college students and early adopters had high speed connections.\u00c2\u00a0 Now seemingly everybody does.<\/p>\n

And why did they get these high speed connections?<\/p>\n

Well, interestingly, price plays a big part.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, AOL just RAISED its dialup subscription price, trying to steer people to broadband.\u00c2\u00a0 Because its services at the newly-beefed up aol.com depend on it.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to watch videos you need a high speed connection.\u00c2\u00a0 Which the telcos are offering at sometimes even LOWER than AOL dialup prices.\u00c2\u00a0 So, desirous of watching video, and enticed by the price, Joe Sixpack is springing for broadband.\u00c2\u00a0 And what he’s getting is faster surfing, the ability to watch video and the right to experience the online digital music revolution.<\/p>\n

With broadband, you can download apps on the Web in a minute or two.\u00c2\u00a0 Apps like iTunes.\u00c2\u00a0 Now you can purchase tracks, but being confronted with all the free tracks on Websites and the ability to rip one’s own discs, the titles coming up in iTunes via CDDB, the new broadband customers dip their toes in the iTunes Music Store waters and then go elsewhere.<\/p>\n

But make no mistake.\u00c2\u00a0 Although the initial broadband sign-ups were all about stealing music, now they’re about seeing clips on youtube and elsewhere.\u00c2\u00a0 It’ll be interesting to see if the movie and television entities are as stupid as the record companies and restrict the distribution of their wares.\u00c2\u00a0 Because, it’s been proven, people will get them elsewhere, chastising providers for being light years behind.\u00c2\u00a0 Also companies risk losing their place in the consumer psyche, like the record business did.<\/p>\n

Yes, music drove the online revolution of the twenty first century.\u00c2\u00a0 People were signing up with their cable companies JUST to download music.\u00c2\u00a0 And what did the major labels DO??\u00c2\u00a0 They killed this activity, now ceding all the buzz to visual entertainment companies.\u00c2\u00a0 Can they get the buzz back?\u00c2\u00a0 Not by selling copy-protected tracks for 99 cents.<\/p>\n

But they’ve got the CD.<\/p>\n

But, after downloading iTunes and listening to music on your computer, suddenly you don’t want the disc.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s as superfluous as those CDs that software companies used to distribute their programs on.\u00c2\u00a0 Why now you just download files from the Web.<\/p>\n

So, all around, things are bleak for the record labels.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re selling tunes in an obsolete format and the thunder comes from a completely different kind of entertainment medium.\u00c2\u00a0 Looking to protect their old business model, they’re trying to sue into submission customers who have adopted new ways of acquisition they’ll never give up and are trying to monetize and protect elements of band promotion that are hindering the breaking of acts.<\/p>\n

Copy protection at mtv.com.\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t it interesting there’s no copy protection at comedycentral.com, another Viacom property that DOESN’T rely on the music business?\u00c2\u00a0 If ONLY people would steal and send videos to other people.\u00c2\u00a0 We call this viral marketing when it’s in the physical world, how come it’s CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR in the online world?<\/p>\n

The hardest thing to do is get someone EXPOSED to an act’s music.\u00c2\u00a0 To hold them back from it, to limit the possibility of exposure, makes no sense.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly not for companies like NBC.\u00c2\u00a0 Whose "Lazy Sunday" SNL skit injected new life into a tired show via ubiquitous distribution on the Web.\u00c2\u00a0 NBC reacted by sending a cease and desist letter to youtube and then putting the video on THEIR SITE ONLY!\u00c2\u00a0 As if nbc.com was a regular stop on the surfer’s rounds.\u00c2\u00a0 No, you’ve got to put the product where people AGGREGATE IT, presently youtube and google video.<\/p>\n

The product was originally at Napster.\u00c2\u00a0 ALL of it.\u00c2\u00a0 But then the labels parceled it out to many sites, none of which have any significant traction other than iTunes.\u00c2\u00a0 The key is to create BEHEMOTHS, one stop shopping, not a bunch of out of the way loser 7-11s.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe there’s only room for one online store, but by insisting on copy protection and sale at a high price the labels have given the power to Apple, Apple hasn’t taken it.\u00c2\u00a0 The end run would be to authorize another way of acquisition, one without copy protection, that would allow people to have a lot of material at a low price.<\/p>\n

And they must do this quickly.\u00c2\u00a0 Before their businesses are decimated.\u00c2\u00a0 The longer they refuse to play by Net rules, and allow consumption of mass quantities by everybody, the more they fall behind the curve, ceding the territory to all-in-one bands who DON’T MIND giving their music away for free.\u00c2\u00a0 THAT’S what the major labels are doing, marginalizing THEMSELVES!<\/p>\n

Then again, the clips NBC should be distributing for free are only ads for their shows, whereas the tunes ARE the major label’s product.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe that’s not such a good business anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe an act shouldn’t separate its rights out and give a label the lion’s share of the money.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially when said label is PREVENTING them from breaking by holding back their material from the masses.<\/p>\n

Just know that the seeds of revolution are not sexy.\u00c2\u00a0 People are abandoning the twentieth century in droves.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t want CDs and they don’t want videos on MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a new world.\u00c2\u00a0 One where a hammer of change doesn’t fall in a day but you wake up suddenly and find, like the camera companies, that your old bread and butter business, in their case film cameras, is dead.<\/p>\n

All the indicators are that the labels, with one foot in the past, if not both, are not prepared for the revolution about to silently overtake them.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d say I feel sorry for them, but it’s hard to sympathize with companies living their lives according to the George Costanza loser philosophy.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, maybe someone in the executive suite saw that episode of "Seinfeld" wherein George decides to become a winner by doing the OPPOSITE of what he usually does.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the only thing that would work for the record labels at this point.\u00c2\u00a0 Good luck!<\/p>\n

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

You’ve got to read this article: Broadband Penetration IncreaseBottom line, 68% of Web-users now connect via broadband. Somehow, the record labels think it’s all about iPods.\u00c2\u00a0 That the revolution won’t be complete until everybody has a hand-held music device, if ever.\u00c2\u00a0 But the iPod is the explosion.\u00c2\u00a0 The revolution comes with broadband penetration. Broadband jump-started […]<\/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":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-355","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-5J","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355","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=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}