I just realised its nearly 3 weeks since my last post (an eternity in the blogosphere!)
During this period Napster and Ericsson joined forces for a mobile music distribution deal, Apple and Nokia partner to develop a mobile web browser, today MSN and Vodafone launch a PC-to-Mobile Instant Messaging alliance…, it’s only the beginning of all major players setting their marks for territory in the mobile market space.
My attention though went to this CNET news.com article about independent music and digital distribution. Kevin Arnold, who runs the Independent Online Distribution Alliance explains how IODA represents a growing number of independent music labels who want their music to be available through Apple Computer’s iTunes or RealNetworks’ Rhapsody service.
Covering digital music distributioon for independents, don’t miss the excellent Washington Post article “Downloading: The Next Generation“.
Check also IMPALA, the Independent Music Companies Association for the aims and challenges European independents face.
If the internet was an opportunity for independents to promote and distribute their content on a much wider scale, the challenges look quite complex for them in the mobile music space, at least I haven’t seen any independent music yet in the wireless space? Time to market?
I discussed the topic last week with a friend in Belgium when I find the original article back through the “Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution“. The quote was originally mentioned in an interview done by Jon Pareles for the NY Times with David Bowie.
(Picture through guus.afpunt.nl)
“The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within ten years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it’s not going to happen. I’m fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in ten years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing. Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity. [...] So it’s like, just take advantage of these last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again. You’d better be prepared for doing a lot of touring because that’s really the only unique situation that’s going to be left. It’s terribly exciting. But on the other hand it doesn’t matter if you think it’s exciting or not; it’s what’s going to happen… ” (June 9, 2002)
Always been a visionary, still a visionary…
A somewhat older but interesting news tip I received from Josep yesterday.
I just love this kind of initiatives.
“The MIT Media Lab is launching a new research initiative to develop a $100 laptop—a technology that could revolutionize how we educate the world’s children. The idea was announced by Nicholas Negroponte, Lab chairman and co-founder, at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland in January 2005.”
“The $100 Laptop will be a Linux-based, full-color, full-screen laptop, which initially is achieved either by rear projecting the image on a flat screen or by using electronic ink (developed at the MIT Media Lab). In addition, it will be rugged, use innovative power (including wind-up), be WiFi- and cell phone-enabled, and have USB ports galore. Its current specifications are: 500MHz, 1GB, 1 Megapixel. The cost of materials for each laptop is estimated to be approximately $90, which includes the display, as well as the processor and memory, and allows for $10 for contingency or profit.”
Note that these laptops are not in production and they are not -and will not—be available for purchase by individuals according Media Lab Press Liaison.
Reading the “PalmOne’s sorry attempt at an iPod killer” article, it looks like Palm’s high-days are far away by now and it’s hard to see they will come back soon.
BlackBerry surpassed PalmOne allready in market share and the attempt to take on to the iPod looks a bit silly to me. Will PalmOne be able to build good smartphones or will the mobile phone manufacturers produce better handheld computers functionalities in their new models?
Interesting idea sketches from Timo Arnall on how to navigate music on a portable device.
“I was frustrated with the iPod clickwheel, thinking about reducing the reliance on visual interfaces and how navigating music has a lot to do with language. I wanted to explore richer interfaces that combine movement, language and vision.” (…) “It can be difficult to control when accessing huge alphabetically ordered lists, and the acceleration or inertia of the view can be really frustrating.”
Interface design is gonna be crucial for the accessibility and use of mobile music.
