People don’t know they want it because they don’t know what it is.<\/p>\n
Same deal with MTV…\u00c2\u00a0 Who wants to watch music on television?\u00c2\u00a0 Turns out EVERYBODY DOES!\u00c2\u00a0 And if you’re a student of history, you know the channel single-handedly pulled the record industry out of a prolonged slump.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course MTV became more valuable than any record label and some of the honchos around back then are still playing today so they will not let this happen again.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why we’ve got no progress in music distribution.\u00c2\u00a0 The fat cats are afraid of giving away the store.<\/p>\n
What’s the hottest story in online music today?\u00c2\u00a0 PANDORA!<\/p>\n
What a fucked up system that is.\u00c2\u00a0 We live in a country where no one wants to listen to the radio because of interminable commercials and jive announcers and lame music and they want an online substitute?\u00c2\u00a0 WHY!\u00c2\u00a0 Not only because it’s conceptually simple, but because Tim Westergren has done an incredible sales job.\u00c2\u00a0 Westergren knows about social networking.\u00c2\u00a0 What broke Pandora wasn’t the service, but the endless e-mails circulating saying the service was gonna die because of regulations.\u00c2\u00a0 Ah, what a brilliant strategy, let’s use the public to fight the man!\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, isn’t this what MTV did to the cable companies, with its "I Want My MTV!" campaign?<\/p>\n
In other words, if people have no idea what you’re selling, you’re not going to be successful.\u00c2\u00a0 Slacker is better than Pandora, but no one knows what it is.\u00c2\u00a0 So Slacker is toast.<\/p>\n
But that brings us back to Spotify.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t care if Pandora is successful, more power to Mr. Westergren.\u00c2\u00a0 I just can’t understand why people like it. You don’t get to hear what you want to when you want to in an era where we want exactly what we want, on demand?<\/p>\n
In other words, no one knows there’s something better.<\/p>\n
Rhapsody wasn’t better because of a shitty interface and the label "rental".\u00c2\u00a0 But now we’re all renting everything.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what streaming is, renting. You watch it\/listen to it and it evaporates.\u00c2\u00a0 Who’s recording YouTube clips?\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, there’s software and some diehards are ripping, the same people who probably still collect VHS tapes, but most people believe if they want to see it\/hear it, it’s still living in the cloud, they can play it whenever they want (assuming the big bad rights holders don’t kill it in the name of profit…how can you profit by making something unavailable…interesting question.)<\/p>\n
So now, if people want to hear music on demand on their computers, they go to YouTube.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t go to the Pandora channel, and sit through what they don’t want to hear and commercials, they click right on the track and listen.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless, of course, it’s Vevo, which believes advertising is the key to the future.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll admit, some people will sit through ads instead of paying, but when it comes to their mobiles, everyone is impatient.<\/p>\n
It’s the holy grail.\u00c2\u00a0 The mobile handset.\u00c2\u00a0 Ever wonder why Google is fighting net neutrality on the handset?\u00c2\u00a0 Come on, all together, let’s march into the FUTURE!<\/p>\n
Forget the wires.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you have a wire on your TV remote?<\/p>\n
And even if you’ve got wi-fi in your house, do you want to schlepp your laptop everywhere?\u00c2\u00a0 No, it all comes down to the smartphone.\u00c2\u00a0 Apple built the paradigm with the iPhone and Google\/Android has followed in its footsteps and the old players, Nokia, RIM and Microsoft, are fighting for survival.<\/p>\n
So we’re gonna listen to music on our handsets.<\/p>\n
But we’re buying less music.\u00c2\u00a0 Digital track sales are stagnant.\u00c2\u00a0 Why?\u00c2\u00a0 Because they’re overpriced and we can listen for free via streaming on YouTube.\u00c2\u00a0 So what’s the future?<\/p>\n
The future is never about blocking an activity, it’s about providing a better solution.<\/p>\n
So, people want to stream.\u00c2\u00a0 They want to rent.\u00c2\u00a0 They just don’t know it yet!\u00c2\u00a0 But they’re renting every time they surf the Web.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you download the "New York Times"?\u00c2\u00a0 Do you save what you watch on Hulu?\u00c2\u00a0 But the content industries are afraid of the cloud.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re just not selling this paradigm. Because they still believe in ownership.<\/p>\n
But ownership is decreasing.\u00c2\u00a0 CDs, DVDs, people don’t want physical media, statistics tell us this.\u00c2\u00a0 So, the solution is to sell everybody content at a cheap price, make it up in numbers.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the cell phone paradigm.<\/p>\n
Are you with me so far?<\/p>\n
I BET YOU’RE NOT!<\/p>\n
You’re gonna rent your music.\u00c2\u00a0 Argue with me all you want, you’re wrong, shut the fuck up.\u00c2\u00a0 You just don’t know so because you haven’t been sold properly, there’s been no Tim Westergren convincing you.\u00c2\u00a0 And the content companies are afraid of the future.<\/p>\n
You’re already renting online.\u00c2\u00a0 But what about on the mobile?<\/p>\n
Hell, on the Android there’s not even a good music organization\/player, there’s no iTunes.<\/p>\n
You’re gonna listen on your mobile handset.\u00c2\u00a0 How?<\/p>\n
You can listen to owned tracks.\u00c2\u00a0 This is economic death for the labels, just like the MP3 killed the album, they don’t know that owned tracks on the mobile is gonna kill them.\u00c2\u00a0 The key is to get everybody to rent for a low price, this is the opportunity.<\/p>\n
Okay, you’re playing along, right?<\/p>\n
We’re talking about music on your mobile.<\/p>\n
What if I told you you could have every song every recorded on your mobile for ten bucks a month?<\/p>\n
You say you don’t want it and you can barely talk on your mobile, coverage is spotty.<\/p>\n
Okay, stay with me.<\/p>\n
You don’t know you want everything because you’ve never had it.\u00c2\u00a0 On the other hand, you have, streaming on YouTube.<\/p>\n
So, we’ve got a shitty sales job.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t know what the product is.<\/p>\n
That was where Pandora did so well.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s FREE!<\/p>\n
Now if I told you you could check out the coolest product ever, and it was free, would you do so?<\/p>\n
OF COURSE!<\/p>\n
You’d give it one chance, it better be damn good.<\/p>\n
That’s Spotify.\u00c2\u00a0 Looks like iTunes, works like you own it, but you don’t have to.<\/p>\n
The free element is the sales job.\u00c2\u00a0 Rhapsody\/Napster\/MOG, et al can’t win because they’re not free.\u00c2\u00a0 The labels won’t allow a free service, that’s how fucked up they are.<\/p>\n
But if I let you play for free, which is how Spotify works in the countries it’s launched in, would you check it out?<\/p>\n
OF COURSE!<\/p>\n
And you’d be hooked.<\/p>\n
But it would only work on the desktop.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to pay for it on your mobile.\u00c2\u00a0 And soon, your mobile will be everything.\u00c2\u00a0 See where we’re heading?\u00c2\u00a0 This is about the music industry being in front instead of behind, leading instead of catching up.<\/p>\n
But it gets better.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re not streaming on your handheld.\u00c2\u00a0 The music is synched.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like ownership, you don’t need a signal, playlists on your desktop are on your handheld, up to 2,000 plus tracks.\u00c2\u00a0 But you can still stream something on a whim!<\/p>\n
Okay, I’ve lost you.<\/p>\n
You just can’t understand it.<\/p>\n
Welcome to today.<\/p>\n
Technologists have invented the future but the rights holders won’t let you experience it and you’re playing in a backwater, you’re left out, ignorant.<\/p>\n
Don’t tell me you love CDs.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t even tell me you listen to the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t care, you’re a Luddite.\u00c2\u00a0 The future is about on demand, exactly what you want whenever you want it.\u00c2\u00a0 Does Facebook tell you when you can log on?\u00c2\u00a0 Does it make you view profiles you don’t want to?\u00c2\u00a0 OF COURSE NOT!<\/p>\n
I can tell you about the future because I’ve been there.<\/p>\n
And the best way to experience the future is to play with it.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, did you know 3-D movies could be cool until you saw those Pixar flicks and "Avatar"?<\/p>\n
Now let’s not get caught up in 3-D.\u00c2\u00a0 My only point is cool.<\/p>\n
Who’s testifying about music streaming services and their incredible mobile capabilities in America?\u00c2\u00a0 NO ONE!\u00c2\u00a0 BECAUSE ALMOST NO ONE HAS USED THEM!<\/p>\n
But they will, it’s just a matter of when.<\/p>\n
It will be a conflagration, the country will be crazy with Spotify, just like it was with MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 But just like with MTV, you didn’t know what it was until you saw it.\u00c2\u00a0 Then you signed up for cable just to watch it.<\/p>\n
Everybody’s talking about Pandora.<\/p>\n
But that’s like watching TV in black and white without a DVR.<\/p>\n
I’m frustrated.\u00c2\u00a0 Afraid of giving away the store, the rights holders are preventing a future that will not only be lucrative, but satisfying to customers.<\/p>\n
And we’re gonna end up there anyway.<\/p>\n
Why are we waiting now?<\/p>\n
Do you want a RAZR when you can have an iPhone?\u00c2\u00a0 Which costs more to buy and requires a monthly data plan?<\/p>\n
Don’t you get it?\u00c2\u00a0 People will pay to be wowed!<\/p>\n
But right now the rights holders are telling you to keep your money in your wallet and you don’t even know what I’m talking about because they just won’t let you experience it.<\/p>\n
I’M SO FRUSTRATED!<\/p>\n
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People don’t know they want it because they don’t know what it is. Same deal with MTV…\u00c2\u00a0 Who wants to watch music on television?\u00c2\u00a0 Turns out EVERYBODY DOES!\u00c2\u00a0 And if you’re a student of history, you know the channel single-handedly pulled the record industry out of a prolonged slump.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course MTV became more valuable […]<\/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":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3684","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-Xq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3684","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=3684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3685,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3684\/revisions\/3685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}