iTunes (and some ranting about Big Music and Networks)
If there's one thing that Apple nailed right on the first go round, it was iTunes. I'm an iTunes junky and will always be an iTunes Junky regardless of what OS I end up using as my primary. Most of the complaints I've heard about iTunes are invalid complaints because they revolve around either A) They have to pay for the music/TV Show or B) They don't have a particular artists/television show/movie they feel should be available and C) There's DRM on them and I can only watch them through iTunes.
For all of these issues, I will point past Apple to the content providers who are stuck in a model that's now severely outdated and which they cannot seem to divorce themselves from. "Sure, you can have our show, but you can't let the customer burn it to a disk or share it out to anybody who's not them."
It's been found that, in general, the people who pirate music are also the ones who spend the most money on it.
Why is this?
That's simple - they find something they like and they want to support the artist who created it. All artists should offer free downloads ALL THE TIME - even if it's just a couple of tracks.
Television and Movies become more of a quagmire. There are generally a number of rights holders involved who want to see the most money possible from the video release of the product (TV show or Movie). They are still stuck on the idea that you have to purchase a "Thing" in order to enjoy these stories. Yes, commercials pay for the show in part, but people are becoming more and more tired of sitting through commercial breaks that seem to be getting longer and longer as time goes on. Look at shows from the 80s on Netflix - a half hour show ran about 25 to 26 minutes. Now a half hour show runs closer to 20 minutes. More commercials!
I think that artists are also still thinking in regards to the old format. We have this much space on a Record/Tape/CD where we can put music. We must write enough music to fit into said space. Some songs are therefore cut and maybe recorded later or turned into B-sides and bootlegs. Sometimes an artist decides that the story they're trying to tell with their music deserves more than that crappy amount of space provided on the record/tape/cd and make something that takes up two of them - Pink Floyd did this notably with The Wall and others.
Digitally those constraints no longer exist. You release songs as you write them if you wanted or put together an album that runs seven hours from start to finish to tell the entire story.
iTunes is brilliant because it continues to allow the old guard to continue their way of doing business and allows new artists to do things in their own way. Yes, they charge a percentage of every sale, but if you're releasing the music yourself, you don't have to pay the label, the mixers, the advertisers for the label and everybody else that goes into making an album happen. You make more money per dollar publishing your music through Apple on your own than you would selling your album through a label - unless you're one of the super big names, but even they have started breaking off from their labels and making their own labels to release their music.
Okay, back to iTunes as I appear to have strayed a little...
iTunes coupled with an Apple TV pretty much means you can take that cable box you have and toss it out the window and into the street - get high speed DSL or keep your high speed cable internet and give those television jerks the finger.
Not only can you buy episodes and seasons through iTunes to view on your Apple TV, you can also watch Netflix and Hulu Plus among others.
Music companies are mad at Apple for changing the game, but if it hadn't been Apple, it would have been Amazon or Microsoft or somebody we've never heard of that changed it on paper because it wasn't any one entity that changed it - it was technology as a whole that changed it just as Technology is changing how to Watch Television and Movies.
I love iTunes and I believe that it is the best possible way of distributing digital information and media to the public at this time. I think Apple deserves some props for what they've managed to do with it.
My fear with iTunes is that it will suffer with Steve Jobs gone. No longer is there man who was feared when he walked into meeting to discuss these things. They knew without a doubt that he had cornered the market and they needed to start doing thinks in a new way. He's gone and I wonder if there's been enough of a shift for Apple to keep them trying to innovate or if the big companies will start chipping away at the progress Apple made.
My hope is that with Amazon and RedBox and Microsoft now on board with similar offerings that things will continue to change and that more, unique content will be made. Not just for iTunes, but for Netflix and Amazon and Microsoft as well.
I want to see more shows like Orange is the New Black, Hemlock Grove, Lillyhammer, and House of Cards. I would love to see all these shows end up for sale on iTunes as well and I'd like the big networks to start producing shows in a similar fashion to what Netflix has done.
I wish I had the notability to become the next CEO at Microsoft. This is likely the most arrogant thing I could possibly say, but I believe I could help turn that company around. Then again, I think a trained monkey could do better than Balmer was doing.
I'm sometimes amazed Windows 8 even got out the door with such a vast change in thinking while Balmer was still in charge.
But I digress once again.
iTunes led the way in how things like Music and Television and Movies are viewed. It's stopped being "I need to be home at 8 to watch my show" to "I'll buy it and watch it whenever I want" or "I'll just wait for it on Netflix."
Change has come and, for the moment, iTunes is still leading the way.
Speaking of which, it's time to put on some music.
For all of these issues, I will point past Apple to the content providers who are stuck in a model that's now severely outdated and which they cannot seem to divorce themselves from. "Sure, you can have our show, but you can't let the customer burn it to a disk or share it out to anybody who's not them."
It's been found that, in general, the people who pirate music are also the ones who spend the most money on it.
Why is this?
That's simple - they find something they like and they want to support the artist who created it. All artists should offer free downloads ALL THE TIME - even if it's just a couple of tracks.
Television and Movies become more of a quagmire. There are generally a number of rights holders involved who want to see the most money possible from the video release of the product (TV show or Movie). They are still stuck on the idea that you have to purchase a "Thing" in order to enjoy these stories. Yes, commercials pay for the show in part, but people are becoming more and more tired of sitting through commercial breaks that seem to be getting longer and longer as time goes on. Look at shows from the 80s on Netflix - a half hour show ran about 25 to 26 minutes. Now a half hour show runs closer to 20 minutes. More commercials!
I think that artists are also still thinking in regards to the old format. We have this much space on a Record/Tape/CD where we can put music. We must write enough music to fit into said space. Some songs are therefore cut and maybe recorded later or turned into B-sides and bootlegs. Sometimes an artist decides that the story they're trying to tell with their music deserves more than that crappy amount of space provided on the record/tape/cd and make something that takes up two of them - Pink Floyd did this notably with The Wall and others.
Digitally those constraints no longer exist. You release songs as you write them if you wanted or put together an album that runs seven hours from start to finish to tell the entire story.
iTunes is brilliant because it continues to allow the old guard to continue their way of doing business and allows new artists to do things in their own way. Yes, they charge a percentage of every sale, but if you're releasing the music yourself, you don't have to pay the label, the mixers, the advertisers for the label and everybody else that goes into making an album happen. You make more money per dollar publishing your music through Apple on your own than you would selling your album through a label - unless you're one of the super big names, but even they have started breaking off from their labels and making their own labels to release their music.
Okay, back to iTunes as I appear to have strayed a little...
iTunes coupled with an Apple TV pretty much means you can take that cable box you have and toss it out the window and into the street - get high speed DSL or keep your high speed cable internet and give those television jerks the finger.
Not only can you buy episodes and seasons through iTunes to view on your Apple TV, you can also watch Netflix and Hulu Plus among others.
Music companies are mad at Apple for changing the game, but if it hadn't been Apple, it would have been Amazon or Microsoft or somebody we've never heard of that changed it on paper because it wasn't any one entity that changed it - it was technology as a whole that changed it just as Technology is changing how to Watch Television and Movies.
I love iTunes and I believe that it is the best possible way of distributing digital information and media to the public at this time. I think Apple deserves some props for what they've managed to do with it.
My fear with iTunes is that it will suffer with Steve Jobs gone. No longer is there man who was feared when he walked into meeting to discuss these things. They knew without a doubt that he had cornered the market and they needed to start doing thinks in a new way. He's gone and I wonder if there's been enough of a shift for Apple to keep them trying to innovate or if the big companies will start chipping away at the progress Apple made.
My hope is that with Amazon and RedBox and Microsoft now on board with similar offerings that things will continue to change and that more, unique content will be made. Not just for iTunes, but for Netflix and Amazon and Microsoft as well.
I want to see more shows like Orange is the New Black, Hemlock Grove, Lillyhammer, and House of Cards. I would love to see all these shows end up for sale on iTunes as well and I'd like the big networks to start producing shows in a similar fashion to what Netflix has done.
I wish I had the notability to become the next CEO at Microsoft. This is likely the most arrogant thing I could possibly say, but I believe I could help turn that company around. Then again, I think a trained monkey could do better than Balmer was doing.
I'm sometimes amazed Windows 8 even got out the door with such a vast change in thinking while Balmer was still in charge.
But I digress once again.
iTunes led the way in how things like Music and Television and Movies are viewed. It's stopped being "I need to be home at 8 to watch my show" to "I'll buy it and watch it whenever I want" or "I'll just wait for it on Netflix."
Change has come and, for the moment, iTunes is still leading the way.
Speaking of which, it's time to put on some music.
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