How Bluetooth Faced Extinction

Although it may seem as if Bluetooth is making its first foray into the music industry, this is definitely not the case. Strangely, the famously wireless company has now released a desk-bound stereo set that is Bluetooth enabled. The idea behind this device is that you can easily play music beamed from your Bluetooth-capable mp3 player directly to the stereo. Sony has also come out with a Bluetooth-enabled amplification system that is even simpler. However, from $150 - $300 per system, I could be very easily convinced to burn mix CDs and physically pop them into a player.

What seems strange is that unlike the rest of the industry that is moving quickly to embrace the demand for portable, all-in-one devices such as the iPhone, some Black Berrys, etc., Bluetooth has created a non-portable, single function device.

Perhaps before they had tried to market Bluetooth-enabled mp3 devices such as the Diva Gem, which comes in three colors. And even earlier, the Sony HBM-40, a simple Bluetooth music-and-phone. Although perhaps these devices didn't sell that well when they were first introduced several years ago, but I think this type of device could be very popular today. People want portable, functional, durable devices that offer them wireless convenience. So before we all start wearing our music players, i definitely think this type of device would be more popular with today's consumer than it was when first introduced.

Dell's latest effort

One giant step backwards for mankind

It appears that the record companies are not willing to let go of DRM. Not only has Steve Jobs' plea to the record companies fallen on deaf ears, but music purveyors are finding new and more intrusive ways to bring DRM into our lives!

The RIAA is still hunting downloaders, most recently releasing a list of the top offenders in terms of college campuses. The worst offenders? Ohio, Purdue, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Tennessee and the University of South Carolina. They have sent out 15,000 complaints to the schools, which is triple the amount sent last year. And despite everything, music sales are still going down, which they claim is due in part to piracy. However, even though the record companies are working in concert to stop illegal downloading, a student at Amherst (the sixth worst offender on the list) said: "You know, downloading is such a part of student culture that college kids will never stop."

In another step back, BitTorrent has broken down and joined the ranks of the new Napster. They are planning to launch a site called the BitTorrent Entertainment Network which will legalize the software in the eyes of the law. However, just like iTunes, BitTorrent's legal material will be encoded with DRM. It makes sense...this company had been vilified in the eyes of the record labels, which were hesitant I'm sure to take on this deal. However, with Google's purchase of YouTube, the validity of the online video download market is quickly growing.

A recent study claims that 62% of record executives think that dropping DRM - so that people can use the songs on any mp3 player - will encourage people to increase online sales. So where's the action behind those words?

iCompetition

Surprise, surprise RIAA. Despite your campaign to hunt down the downloaders (with tacit approval from the Big Four), about 1 billion illegal songs are still traded every month. Suing grandmothers and 12-year-olds may be a scare tactic, but it's clearly not an effective one. Since the iTunes Store was launched in 2003, more than 2 billion songs have been sold through its 99-cents-per-song model. However, compared to a potential 44 billion songs illegally traded through P2P software - such as Gnutella, BitTorrent, Kazaa, the old Napster - the iTunes Store seems like small change.

The threat of a lawsuit doesn't seem to faze the small army of illegal downloaders. So instead of laying the heavy hand of the law upon them, why don't we encourage them to behave otherwise? How can we make the concept of legal purchase more palatable to a mass audience?

Convenience! Steve Jobs has already come out in opposition to digital rights management in his open letter to the Big Four last week. His iPhone concept is tying into the idea of convenience. Consumers can download any track from the iTunes Store, anytime, anywhere with a click of the touchscreen. A company in Europe and Asia actually beat Jobs to the punch with their MusicStation concept.


Omnifone is a company that operates in Europe, Asia and South Africa, and their MusicStation is quite a slick program. It works on almost any music phone, 2.5-3G, and allows you to download any digital track in their system for a weekly flat rate of £1.99 or €2.99 (slightly less than $4 US). Unlimited downloads for $4 a week? I'll take it! Downloaded directly to my phone, with PC compatibility? Even better! However, there is one pitfall. Just like the iTunes Store, the MusicStation digital tracks are encoded with DRM.

The current use of DRM by the record companies is not encouraging consumers to walk on the good side of the law. Why pay for something that you cannot use freely, while you can download a DRM-free track for nothing and be able to do whatever you want with it.

When will the record companies let go of their chokehold on digital music? If they want to survive, they need to change.

ribbit

For all the work that record labels do to prevent downloading, a popular symphony in England has avoided the issue entirely by offering their tracks online for free download through a music management company called BlueFrog. The Lancashire Sinfonietta has 10 songs posted on their website, and they allow the user to use them however they wish - burning to CD, uploading to an mp3 player, and they even have the CD album art and booklet available for download and printing. They also offer their CDs for £7.50 on the same website, which is about $12 or $13.

To download the songs, the user must register with the website and provide very minimal personal information (name, email and country). Then the site provides you with a "passcode" to download the songs. They say that they won't sell your personal information, so I'm guessing that they just use the information to track and market to their existing fan base.

Their press release notes that "this is great for people who want to try out classical music for the first time as there's no need to fork out for something you're not sure you're going to like." So BlueFrog and the Sinfonietta are effectively providing an on-demand sample of classical music so users can try it out for free. And, you are not "borrowing" the tracks. The absence of DRM sets this model apart from the Napster and Ruckus model.

However, at the same time, I realize that the British model is quite different from the American system of capitalism. The arts receive many times more funding from their government - through regional Arts Councils - than they do here, and they probably aren't as concerned with "stealing." The Lancashire Sinfonietta is probably not going to bankrupt itself by offering its tracks online for free. Despite the differences in how the recording industry works in the U.K. and America, I think the record companies here could take a lesson from this model. Offer some tracks online for free, and allow users to do whatever they want with them. If they like what they hear, they will come back for more. And when they come back, they'll bring their credit cards with them.

the only music student without an ipod

When I was sitting in class last week, the Professor asked everyone if they had an iPod, a Zune or "other." I thought to myself, I am probably the only person in class who doesn't have anything at all. I don't even own a CD player anymore.

I remember in junior high my father bought me the Rio 500. It was light and about the size of a deck of cards, and ran on a card - 64 mb. Seems puny now, but at the time it was the coolest thing in school. I think it held about a CD's worth of music...maybe less.

First I was waiting for a generation that didn't break down as much. And then I was waiting for something smaller. And then I was waiting for something with more storage. And then I was waiting for something that had the storage of a video iPod in the size of a Nano. And then I realized that I hated Apple products.

I think they finally may have invented something that makes everyone happy. The iPhone is on Cingular and is a cell phone, iPod and web browser, all in one. It is a high function device and works just like an iPod. The touchscreen allows you to call someone by touching their name in your address book. Also, the iPhone has Safari loaded on to it already. And as I understand it, Safari is basically impervious to computer viruses. However, some applications that I like to use, such as Google Chat, don't work on Safari.

One big problem, and I think the majority of my classmates' foremost concern, is that if you lose your iPhone you're totally out of luck. But at the same time, you have less electronics to keep track of so maybe you'd be less likely to lose it.

Maybe the iPhone is enough to break me. Maybe I will finally get an iPod.