With Music, Apple Pleases Older People, Microsoft Focuses on Youth

I’ve spent the last few weeks with a demo Windows Phone running the new version 7.5, or  ”Mango”, operating system. It’s been a splendid time. Microsoft is really onto something.

My regular phone is an iPhone 4S, though, and I have to say: there are no two operating systems so different as Apple’s iOS, which runs on my iPhone, and Mango. They differ in every way, from philosophy, to user experience, to look and feel. And that’s a good thing.

One key element I’ve noticed about the two platforms is this: Apple’s iOS is geared towards an older crowd, while Microsoft’s approach is much more attuned to youth culture.

A good example of this is in the way the two platforms provide commercial access to music.

Whatever music you want, whenever: $5 a month. (UPDATED)

I have tasted the future of music, and it’s quite delicious.

A new service from the guys who brought us the seminal Skype, Rdio (pronounced R-deo) is a subscription-based streaming music service that was released in Canada this week.

Unfortunately, like Skype, Rdio is a great idea only moderately well executed and fails to fully deliver on its own promise. Both technical and licensing problems trip it up too often to make it ready for widespread adoption.

However, again like Skype, it’s a harbinger of what’s to come.

How much is that song worth to you?

In an age when our Canadian currency flirts with US dollar parity, the abstract qualities of value reveal themselves.

It shows that how we measure the actual worth of anything is difficult to explain in a coherently logical manner.

Take currency, for example. Its value is based on some arcane mix of commodities prices, interest rates, economic performance, and pixie dust.

But at the end of the day the buck stops with the consumer.

The Canadian dollar is only worth more than the US dollar if people believe it is.

Value is therefore in the eyes of the beholder. This is an important thing to keep in mind when we consider the future of digital media.

Life after files and folders

It’s silly.

We still use this rigid system of files and folders on computers almost 4 decades after it was conceived of in a lab.

Even back then it was only a moderately good concept. Better options existed.

But like the combustion engine, it’s a bad idea we seem to be stuck with.

Fortunately, the end is in site.

What I call the “library model” of document management is gaining traction. It’s the electric engine of the computer industry.

I’ll be damned: apple listened

So a guys spends a few days in the hospital with his son and the world gets turned upside down.

I what can only be viewed as a statement of the impact of the blogosphere, Apple has changed its policy regarding upgrading previously purchased iTunes tracks to DRM-free.

That is, one no longer must buy en masse (apple’s all-or-nothing approach: whatever, dude), it’s now a la carte.

Sweet!

Now to find the time to dig through those 1400 songs they say I can upgrade to find the ones I actually want…

apple’s all-or-nothing approach: whatever, dude

One of the biggest stories to come out of MacWorld last week was Apple’s abandonment of DRM for music sold through the iTunes store. DRM, or Digital Rights Management, is a software mechanism that controls where and when you can play content that has been legally purchased. 

Apple’s DRM basically locked you to Apple’s hardware products, particularly their iPods.

So it’s great new that, by the end of April 2009, all music sold through the iTunes music store will be DRM-free. You’ll be able to play it on any device you damn well please, and copy it as much as you want. This is cause for celebration.

But, wait a minute. What about all that music I bought over the years that was (and still is) DRM locked? Well, Apple’s got a deal that will let you upgrade the music I already bought to their “iTunes Plus” tracks, format. 

That sounds great, but there’s a catch: I have to upgrade everything I ever bought, all at once. And that’s not great. In fact, that sucks.

Right now, my bill for the deal is $342.22 for 1,373 songs. That works out to about 25¢ per song. And they haven’t even upgraded all the tracks to iTunes Plus yet, so my bill’s gonna get even bigger.

The thing is, I don’t want to upgrade my entire library, especially not at that expense. I’d probably actually pay to upgrade maybe 10% to 15% of my library. There’s a lot of crap that I actually regret having bought in the first place, so it’s salt in the wound to have to pay for it again.

So, sorry, Apple, your upgrade deal is no deal to me. I’m taking a pass on this one.

northern bandwidth? what northern bandwidth?

Rather than burn gas and run all the way down to Rogers,  I’ve gotten in the habit of renting movies from iTunes.

Online movies are pretty sweet. When you have bandwidth, that is. 

Being netlocked as we are in the Horse, online rentals can actually be an exercise in frustration. It’s taking longer to download V for Vendetta than it will to watch. I could have walked to Rogers and back by now.

My friends down south rave that it’s a much quicker download for them. I should demand some regulation and have them subsidize my internet bills, the smarmy bastards.

Eck. I’ll have to remember to start my movie downloads a week in advance from now on. Life in the Yukon. Sigh.

Earth to NBC: It’s Business, not War

News.com reports this morning that George Kliavkoff, chief digital officer at NBC Universal, is calling on Apple to build anti-piracy technologies into iTunes.

I have a better idea: let me buy your content.

NBC and Apple are engaged in a lover’s spat these days, unable to agree on pretty much anything. It all started last year when they publicly carried on about pricing. Then Apple either kicked NBC out of the iTunes Store or NBC quit it. Nobody know how it played out for sure.

This childish behaviour doesn’t benefit either company. Both seem intent on engaging in political media warfare more than serving the interests of consumers, and in the end that type of behaviour won’t benefit anyone.

The bottom line is, consumers want to access NBC’s content as painlessly as possible. iTunes is currently the simplest and easiest way to do this. The two companies need to gain some maturity and institute an interim situation that serves consumers’ interests and take their bickering into the back room. Really, we don’t want to hear about it. We just want to watch Lost.

Because the more their dispute is prolonged, the stronger that alternative channels of media distribution will become. NBC calls that piracy; I call that necessity. Developing and instituting anti-piracy technology will accomplish squat. Hasn’t Mr. Kliavkoff heard about that dismal failure called DRM?

I download Lost from the BitTorrent network out of necessity. I’m not a criminal, there’s just no other way for me to access this content through online channels. I’m not interested in cluttering up my personal space with discs, so I won’t buy the DVD sets.

But I would pay if NBC would choose to offer me the opportunity to do so. For some funny reason, however, Mr. Kliavkoff’s company has decided to make that impossible for me.