Category: Music

Is Accessibility About to Overtake Ownership?

March 29, 2011March 29, 2011 Bob Caswell 4 Comments

Greetings from the sky! I’m writing this on my flight back to Seattle from Boston and noticed that the tech-news-o-sphere is all abuzz about Amazon’s new cloud music products recently announced. In a nutshell, Amazon automatically now is giving its MP3 customers accessibility to their music anytime and in any place via an online digital media locker (“cloud drive”) and an online music “cloud player”.

My predication is that this is the beginning of consumers (mass consumers, not just early adopters) migrating from an ownership mentality to an accessibility mentality. Here’s what I mean:

Amazon, Apple, Internet, Media, Music, Tech News

No Thank You, Radiohead, Please Sell Where I Shop

March 6, 2011 Bob Caswell 2 Comments

First, a quick recap on Radiohead’s place in the world of digital distribution experimentation:

In 2007, Radiohead decides to release their album “In Rainbows” exclusively on Radiohead.com with a unique “choose your own price” model. You pick how much you pay (free being an option), and you then can download the album. Next, comScore releases numbers from the Radiohead experiment, which suggest that most of us are cheapskates and freeloaders.

Amazon, Internet, Media, Music, Shopping

Rhapsody’s New DRM-Free MP3 Store with Full Song Previews

June 30, 2008August 20, 2008 Bob Caswell 4 Comments

Today’s big announcement comes from Rhapsody, the online music service previously known for its subscription-based streaming music for a monthly fee. Well, turns out people are more interested in owning their music rather than renting. So now we have another major competitor for iTunes and Amazon MP3.

Amazon, Apple, Internet, Music, Tech News, Web 2.0

Amazon MP3 Survey Asks Interesting Questions on Music Buying

May 5, 2008August 20, 2008 Bob Caswell No Comments

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Amazon MP3, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. And I’m glad the Amazon MP3 team doesn’t think so either. Here’s a copy of an email I received from them asking me to fill out a survey. Check out some of the more interesting questions asked followed by commentary (after text of the email below):

Amazon, Internet, Music, Tech News, Web 2.0

Radiohead Gives Up On Free But Cold Play Gives It a Try

April 30, 2008August 20, 2008 Bob Caswell 3 Comments

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke decided to open up a little on the band’s “pay what you want” experiment from last year:

“I think it was a one-off response to a particular situation… It was one of those things where we were in the position of everyone asking us what we were going to do. I don’t think it would have the same significance now anyway, if we chose to give something away again. It was a moment in time.”

Translation: “We didn’t make as much as we are hoping, and it would only be less if we used that model again.”

Music, Tech News

How To: Get Consumers to Buy CDs Instead of MP3s

April 17, 2008August 20, 2008 Bob Caswell 15 Comments

I may be alone on this one, but I just noticed a small pattern in my CD shopping habits. Here’s an example:

Over the past couple years, I’ve come to love music from the band Muse. British rockers with some serious talent, they have a great sound that is a mix of britpop, rock, alternative, and electronica.

Amazon, Media, Music

Amazon MP3 Customers Don’t Come from iTunes, But I Did

April 15, 2008August 20, 2008 Bob Caswell 10 Comments

Market research firm NPD Group issued a report today explaining that Amazon MP3 is growing but not taking away customers from Apple’s iTunes. It seems that only 10% of Amazon MP3 shoppers in February were iTunes shoppers previously.

Amazon, Apple, Internet, Music, Tech News

New Study on Digital Music is Outdated Before Released

April 8, 2008August 20, 2008 Bob Caswell 4 Comments

Ars Technica has the scoop on a “new” study which shows how Apple’s iTunes is “widening its lead in the digital music market at the expense of other top brands.” The name of the article, in fact, is Competition unable to take a big bite out of Apple’s iTunes. The article could be interesting, what with its data, charts, and supposed analysis. But it has one major problem that invalidates most everything said:

Internet, Music, Tech News, Web 2.0