Just trying to get myself some gravity... with my family, listening to music, having a beer... at work building ideas
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Music piracy: Singing a different tune | The Economist
Apple’s popular digital iTunes store is little more than a niche service
Another good article, as always, from @theeconomist.
Despite all the haters of U2 (note I'm an uber fan) I think peeps should take note that the likes of Paul McGuiness recognise the current (or is it now the old?) marketing machine of music is rapidly becoming defunct... Despite U2 being labelled as label hype it should be noted their album deals have always been wise in giving full control only to the band in terms of re-issues, greatest hits etc and they've been pro-active with digital in terms of iTunes, YouTube and U2.com
Anyways all this U2 is off topic..
As per the snippet... Surreal reminder to those of us who think iTunes is dominant...
Context not Content is King
I believe that the value of content which is at the heart of many heated debates such as online piracy, is in the context of it's consumption.
Recently tweeted:
"@uniquejosh as I've blogged before, it's the context of content which drives the value... Not the medium which is agnostic to the content"
In context of me being there, up close to the band, with other fans, listening to the tracks from U2's No Line on The Horizon was worth the ~£200 I paid for seeing them at the Millennium Stadium.
In context of me wanting some music playing on my iPhone whilst doing other things, the £12 for *exactly* the same content (the songs) is worth it.
Same content; wrapped in a different context - for me that is what drives the value.
If you follow this thinking then as a content producer I think you should be looking at how your content will augment / affect / disrupt the consumers context in which they "need" your content.
Understanding this would enable you to therefore understand and embrace multi channel deliveries with various price points thus leaving the one size fits all package of today (e.g. we all go to cinema for movie, wait six months for DVD which can only watch on X device(s).
Using Spotify has made Playlists useful
The challenge I have with Spotify has been to answer the question "What shall I listen to?"
When an avid iTunes user this was not a problem... I had only my favoured artists and all was neatly rated plus I had Genius... Therefore I could always hit play knowing I would like what I listened to...
With Spotify, which is now my primary music tool, because of the access to more music than I know about I put myself in a state of quandry as I'm thinking "I know what I like but I can listen to anything!"
So I sit there trying to think of an artist I don't know.
Hence my new found love of playlists... I had never been a fan.. The nearest thing I used was iTunes Genius because it gave more variety than a predictable playlist I had made...
My listening patterns have now changed so that I am either in the mood to just listen to something I know I need to hear there and then.. Other than that I'm sticking on a playlist made by friends such as @tristanbodman or @reyes. Or I'm searching Twitter for original combos. This is in effect Spotify's Genius - the genius of the crowd of Spotify users makes for as great a listening experience as the AI of iTunes Genius.
So playlists are back in my life... Never loved nor used now they are key to my enjoyment of Spotify :)
If you have any recommendations for awesome playlists then please post them up as comments, cheers
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