Stuck in traffic this morning, listening to Pandora on my iPhone, I reflected on my reaching out to Justin @Muxtape with his recent online message regarding the service shutdown by the RIAA. Ive always been a forward thinker, so logically I went straight to the potential key in this well debated and controversial issue on copyrighted infringement: Physical vs Stream.
Think about it, What drives music piracy and terrifies the mighty Titans of Hollywood’s entertainment industry?
Did you answer physical files or products? No, Why not?….
Widespread copyright infringement, or piracy, is about the ease of creating and sharing mp3’s. Consumer’s need mp3’s to enjoy his/her digital device (ie iPhone/iPod/Zune/ect). Online music retailers fuel the need as both businesses and Major record companies alike try to control the use of files. This includes authorized services such as eMusic, Rhapsody, Amazon.com, and Napster.
If the Recording Industry wants to regain its footing then, in my opinion, it needs to start thinking ahead and embracing companies like Pandora and Muxtape. Mp3’s are fading from the forefront characteristic of the Internet as cloud computing begins to shift our everyday lives.
I’ll give you an example, I own a 16GB iPhone which contains ZERO mp3 files. Why do I need mp3’s when I can stream them from the internet via services such as Pandora and Last.fm? Sure you can toss reasons as to why having the digital files is better than streaming, but at the end of the day why cant streaming be better than digital files?
If the Recording Industry, and RIAA, adopted cloud music services today would this put them in a better position tomorrow? Yes! - Case in point, Napster.
If the Recording Industry positioned itself properly could those feeding the consumer physical music addition (ie: mp3s & digital devices) be shut down? Why not!
Its time the Recording Industry & RIAA got off their asses and flipped the script. Take the power back. They need to remove themselves from a combative stance and start focusing resources on developing the new. If the physical dependency can be removed, shifting to streaming content, the who needs mp3’s or even cd’s? Not me!
This message was brought to you by: My morning drive to work.
More information:
- The Napster Controversy (start to finish)
- DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT
- Digital Rights Management (DRM)
- History of Mp3’s Wikipedia
- How To: Live the Cloud Life by Paul Stamatious
- Cloud Computing Wikipedia
Browse Timeline
Comments ( 1 Comment )
SIGEPJEDIAnother odd example in combating ‘physical’ fuel feeding DRM:
Apple has also applied for a patent to - no joke - extend digital rights management to tennis shoes and other articles of clothing. “What is desired,” the patent application says, “is a method of electronically pairing a sensor and an authorized garment.” It continues:
As used herein an authorized garment is a garment sanctioned to be electronically paired with an authenticated (i.e., certified) sensor. Once the garment and sensor are electronically paired, the sensor can receive (and in some cases process) sensing information (such as garment performance data or user performance data) received from the garment. Since only authorized garments are configured to electronically pair with authenticated sensors, a user (or manufacturer) can be assured that the sensing data received by the sensor is both accurate and consistent with its intended use (a sensor designed for use with running shoes can not properly be used with dance shoes, for example).
Apple views tennis-shoe DRM as a way to head off what it sees as a potential plague of sneaker hacking. “Some people,” the patent application observes, “have taken it upon themselves to remove the sensor from the special pocket of the [iPod-linked] Nike+ shoe and place it at inappropriate locations (shoelaces, for example) or place it on non-Nike+ model shoes.”
added these pithy words on
Oct 01 08 at
4:08 pm