The New Media Paradigm

The times, they are a changing. And to help understand some of the factors that will influence the way you purchase digital media I have compiled five factors that I deem to be important in the shaping of the industry.

Apple Unleashed - The evolution of iTunes

Once upon a time iTunes was just a simple application that played music. But oh, how it has changed since then. Though many people think that iTunes 6 is only important because it allows you to play video, they are wrong. ITunes isn’t important because it plays music, or movies, or podcast. No, iTunes is revolutionary because it has morphed into an application for purchasing and managing digital media, that includes some form of copyright protection (FairPlay), via the internet.

Here is the proof. Currently iTunes allows you to buy music, music videos, short Pixar animations and TV shows. Now, nothing fundamental about the program needs to change to allow customers to purchase any of the following products:  movies, discontinued TV shows, current TV shows, cable shows, cartoons, news broadcasts, video games, applications, operating systems, e-books, pictures, or anything else that can be transfered over the net.

The time it would take to download some of these things would be fairly long but the potential exists. Think about it this way, Apple has created a product that large businesses could trust with their products. With Apple supplying the DRM and a ready made store, then it would a colossal blunder for major companies not to tap into this highly lucrative revenue stream.

How many of us would like to buy TV shows that are currently discontinued? Off the top of my head I can think of a half dozen quite easily. Anyone remember Space: Above and Beyond? How about Nowhere Man? Reboot, Transformers and TimeTrax are a few more I would love to have.

Currently I can hunt around eBay for some of these titles but it would be so much easier if I could just buy them online via iTunes. How about the newest version of the iWork suite? Why not just download that to your computer? Need a new video game for your PS3? How would you like to demo it online, download it and then wirelessly transmit it to your game machine? The technology is already here all we need is the content providers to see the light and Apple to make it all work seamlessly.

This is not to say that iTunes is perfect, it isn’t. But it is moving in the right direction. Some features I would like to find in the ITMS are better categories, especially for podcasts. It would be very helpful if they expanded some of the current breakdowns of usage. When I click on the Science section of the podcast directory I am confronted with quite a few choices. It would be great if I could search those various criteria. Such as popularity, broadcasting location or date of creation. And searching via location would be more useful for local interest items.

Also, why not use the spotlight technology to search through the ITMS. How many of us have ever wanted to buy a song off of ITMS but didn’t know the artist or title but could hum a few lyrics? What did you do? Google of course. From there you got the needed info and then went back to the ITMS. With a little effort Apple could save you that step. Not drastically important but it would be a nice touch.

Rich & Greedy - The music industry missed the boat

Maybe some of you have heard that the music industry is upset with Mr. Jobs because he won’t change the pricing on iTunes. To that I must say “boo hoo, don’t care”. I really did try but no matter how hard I looked I just couldn’t find a drop of pity in my soul for the music industry. And there are a few things that contribute to those lack of feelings. Remember when the industry got busted for price fixing in the mid-90s? Yeah, they forgot to mention that little item in their “woe is me” campaign. Then there is the fact that they do nothing and essentially get free money from the ITMS. Remember, about 70% of every 99 cent track goes to them. The rest goes to Apple and after they take out operating expenses then whatever is left over they count as profit. That is why the music store sells a lot of songs, it doesn’t produce a lot of revenue for Apple. And of course we can’t forget how the industry shamelessly shafts its artist. The breakdown is like this:  Apple ~ 30%, Industry 70% (59% for company 11% for artist) Not very fair for the artist is it? So, when I hear that apparently the music industry isn’t making enough money and thus feels the need to charge us more I feel very little sympathy for them. And, I just want to remind them, most people have no problem going back to piracy. Because a new type of consumer is emerging who thinks that “if it isn’t on iTunes then it deserves to be stolen”. If you, as a company, refuse to make your product easy to purchase by your customers then you can’t be surprised when people acquire it illegally.

And while this news will surely make Sony, BMG and the rest cry buckets of tears they have only themselves to blame. When digital music was first beginning to become popular they had an opportunity to capitalize on it. But, instead they decided to try and kill this new technology and cling to the past in an attempt to charge customers as much as possible. That less than brilliant strategy resulted in todays quagmire. Namely, the realization that they need Apple more than Apple needs them. And I am not talking about today, I am talking about five years down the road. Or ten. Or 20 when all the music you buy will be online. Piss them off now and how long before that 70% cut goes down to say 40%? Or, even scarier, if Apple approached an artist and suggested they cut a deal together and completely exclude the labels. Don’t think that hasn’t crossed their minds once or twice. The revolution isn’t coming, the revolution is now.

Movies - Things are changing

Consistently, year after year, movie theater attendance is down. Why? Well, part of the problem is that hollywood continues to make crap. Does Catwoman ring a bell? How about any of the Resident Evil movies? Alone in the Dark (or for that matter, any video game based movie), Taxi, Napoleon Dynamite (why was this a movie?), anything with Tom Arnold or Snoop Dog in it, Battlefield Earth, any “teen” movie, The master of disguise and the list goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on. Most of the movies currently playing in your local multiplex suck. And, if you are lucky, they only moderately suck (think War of the Worlds ) instead of well and truely sucking (think Doom). And then of course there are those few movies who go beyond suck and, due to the marketing blitz, become black holes of suction. That never coveted spot must go to the Star Wars Prequels.

But if you decide to press on and see a movie at your local theater (and let’s assume you get lucky and decide to see Batman Begins or Wallace and Gromit) then you still have to deal with over priced food, stale popcorn, loud people, cell phones, out of focus pictures, morons talking and sticky floors. Is it any wonder that movie attendance is down? The industry needs a shake things up and here are a few suggestions.

First, sell copies of the movie on DVD at the theater. In other words, beat the pirates to the punch. After seeing Batman Begins I would have definitely paid $20 to walk out of the theater with a copy in my hands. Why? Because it was an excellent movie. Studios are steadily decreasing the time from movie release on the big screen to DVD release at Walmart. Since this trend shows no signs of reversing then maybe they should just admit that things need to change and release everything at once.

Second, this includes downloads of the movie via ITMS. Let’s face it, there is a certain number of people who will never buy your product because they would rather get it free, so forget them. The industry needs to focus on the the group who might get it off of bit torrent if there wasn’t a legal means of easily purchasing it digitally. That is the group that should be targeted.

Culture of thieves - The Kazaa generation

New studies have shown that even with the advent of iTunes a vast majority of teenagers would still rather steal their music than pay for it. To that I must say, DUH! And no matter how many people the RIAA sues this trend will not die. The only way to reach these people is to offer a compelling solution that is unequivocally leaps and bounds better than bit torrent. Here is a hint, charging higher prices for music isn’t the way to end piracy! However, offering a comprehensive library of titles that is easy to search and guaranteed to download quickly, all at a reasonable price with fair DRM is a step in the right direction. And the best part is that this model is media independent. You could just as easily stick music in there as you could TV shows or movies.

Pushing the envelope - iPorn & more

Two days after the new iPod was announced there were “iPorn” movies being sold on adult sites. That is a wonderful example of a company adapting to changes in the market and they will not be alone. Anyone know what the most popular podcast is at last count? Tiki Bar TV. And guess what, you won’t find it on ABC, NBC or CBS. The show is interesting, funny and able to be downloaded whenever you like. Net result, they are the most popular podcast with no signs of relinquishing the top spot. This is only the beginning.

Imagine how far this can be taken. Anyone with a decent camera, a good computer and access to the net can produce their own TV show. Here are some directions this could take:

• Novice film makers can now reach a large audience
• Reality TV, the home edition. Now anyone can be a TV star
• The local news will really be local
• Film majors at colleges can now post their senior project right to the web
• Special interest films are about to become lots more popular
• High school and college sports (not already covered on ESPN) can now be enjoyed by all

And the list goes on. Eventually anyone with enough money and talent will be able to make their own movie, animation or film and post it directly to the web. And, if it becomes popular enough, they can charge for it which will create a whole new industry of do-it-yourself movie makers. The future looks bright and I can’t wait to get there.