10 years ago, if you told me that the general public would prefer to download music digitally instead of buying CDs, I would have thought you were crazy. Now imagine 10 years from now, we wont even need to own digital tracks- everything we'll want to listen to will be streamed through the internet. Sounds pretty crazy, right? That future is already turning its wheels.Lala, an online music service, revamped its website introducing a new business model, which lets users listen to a full tracks for free the first time and then gives them the option of buying the track for 10 cents to be able to stream it anytime they want as long as they have access to the internet. Also, for 79 cents more, users can download a DRM free version of the same track for portable devices. Think Myspace Music, except a lot more music and without all the annoying advertisements. Record labels are gambling with this new model, because it's all new territory in the digital world called, "cloud computing."
Billboard referred to this as the "concept of information and content stored on the internet and temporary delivered to computers or other access devices rather than being permanently downloaded." This new model could potentially change they way music publishers function and force a change in the way music gets licensed. According to Billboard, 35% of the average major publishing company's revenue comes from mechanical royalties.
What's the likelihood of this happening? Very high.
Wireless internet is becoming more and more widespread throughout America, with more wifi spots popping up everyday. In less than a decade, America will be blanketed by wifi networks. Already, our MP3 players and cell phones have continuous access to the internet. With complete access to the internet so we can stream music anytime we'd like, will we need to digitally download music anymore?
It's a complicated concept to grasp. Personally, you could call me old school because I like to buy albums as opposed to downloading music. This new model could completely wipe out any need for albums and that would be a sad day for me. Consumer-wise though, this model could be very successful. It'll makes it easier and more affordable to listen to music. But at what cost? Technically, we wont "own" the music per-se. Rather we'll be continuously "borrowing" it to listen to. Is this the future?
2 comments:
Streaming video and music is gonna be hard to do once companies institute usage caps. Comcast has already done it, capping users' bandwidth at 256gb per month. It seems like a lot (I've never used more than 1gb in a day), but with streaming video and music, downloading HD movies, and other online services becoming larger and larger, it'll have an impact. Watch.
Yeah, it is VERY discouraging to hear about this usage cap. Fortunately at this time, like you mentioned, 99% of internet users will not be affected by this. Here are some numbers that Comcast put out:
-Send 50 million emails (at 0.05 KB/email)
-Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song)
-Download 125 standard-definition movies (at 2 GB/movie)
-Upload 25,000 hi-resolution digital photos (at 10 MB/photo)
When we're talking about streaming videos like internet radio and youtube, it's even less bits that are being transferred. (you could watch youtube videos/listen to streaming music 24/7 and not reach the limit)
Of course, this usage cap will be a problem in 5 years, but I would hope to think that Comcast will increase the cap accordingly. If not out of the goodness of their heart, then for competitive reasons with other internet providers. Bandwidths will only increase in time, so it wouldn't make sense to keep the same cap.
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