My post on sharing your iTunes over the internet, has proved to be quite popular. Largely aided by being linked on Life Hacker and then consumed on del.icio.us it is now the second most hit page on my site, after the photo album and before my home page. Thank google images for that one.
Anyway, I digress. What's interesting here is that people are using this streaming technology in a way completely unintended, and clearly not designed for. The unanticipated was designed so you could listen to the music of people around you, hear new music, and then perhaps go buy it if you like it. You can see there was half a good idea in this and half a business opportunity here (those little grey arrows in iTunes aren't there by accident you know).
However the sheer number of people trying to hack the system so that they can "share" their music over the internet, show that there is something going on here. People want to listen to their own music remotely. People aren't hacking the system to distribute music illegally (well some might but P2P is much more efficient for that) but are hacking it to listen to their own music.
See not everyone has a 60gb iPod. And not everyone wants one. And with the iPod range starting from ½gb then clearly there is a need for people to be able to access their music remotely. Sure this might kill some sales of iPods, but I don't really see that. And as networking becomes pervasive (WiFi, 3G, WiMax), just think of an iPod that not only plays songs locally but can stream them from your full archive at home. Possible today, but unpractical. Give it a few years and this isn't inconceivable.
Many people who got an iPod have said how it changed the way they listened to music. Myself included. I had ½GB iRiver player before my iPod mini. It never changed the way I listened to music. The iPod did. The iPod resulted in me buying an mac mini, based around how I was going to listen to music (although granted I have got so much more out of it, it was still initially music that was the driver)
There definitely is something going on here, but this space is completely ignored. Everyone is so busy running around trying to control our music and how we listen to it, that they forget, the best way to encourage growth is to encourage us to listen to more music. Let me listen to my own music first, however I bought it, whenever and wherever I want to, then maybe I'll start paying for more of it again. Stop me listening to my own music, and I'll start acquiring it illegally, as you are not selling anything to me that has value.
1. Gordon
I understand what you are saying but… whoa… what’s that… ohh a popup “Live Comment Preview”… weird… anyway… ohh look, I can watch myself type.. or something… ANYWAY…
The problem isn’t the technology, and I’d wager that the only reason Apple didn’t build that ‘hack’ into iTunes was because the record companies wouldn’t have allowed it. From recent press reports it appears that some record companies are slowly beginning to “get it” and are recognising that they need to change but it’ll take a BIG step for one of the big boys to get the rest to hop on this little wagon.
2. Adrian
Well actually in iTunes 4.0 this streaming did work over the net. They disabled it in 4.0.1. I entirely agree this was reactive to the record companies.
However the main point I am trying to make is that no one thought people would stream music to themselves. This tech was though of as a way for people to listen to their mates music. Of people in shared envinments (student digs, offices) listening to each others music, without actually pirating a copy.
What I’m saying is that all these people, these thousands of people reading that post, are all doing this ‘hack’ so that they can listen to their own music. Which is interesting when you think about it.
This was triggered by your link to Tom’s post, but I have a follow on to this tomorrow called Me ⇒ iTunes which was the original reason I wrote this. But it was getting too long and I thought it would fit better as two posts.
3. Gordon
Righto. Same as yer path thingy then. People are MAKING it work the way they want it to work, so redesign the product to incorporate that. Gotcha.
4. Matthew
It all comes back to the path thingy.