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Posts Tagged ‘year’

21 Jan 2010

Ever since Apple acquired music streaming service Lala in early December of last year, speculation has been flying surrounding exactly how Steve Jobs and company would incorporate the new assets into its wildly popular iTunes music service.

Early signs pointed to the cloud, and how Lala’s unique “upload your own music collection” feature could be leveraged to make users’ tunes centrally located online and available from theoretically anywhere. Recent reports from CNet back up that idea with a few new potential details: Apple is supposedly talking with the top four major labels about offering a free streaming music service to consumers.

According to sources, Apple executives have discussed a cloud-based service where users could upload their music libraries to Apple servers. That music could then be streamed anywhere, to any internet-connected device — potentially at no additional cost to consumers. The streaming service is being positioned as a “value add” that would boost further download sales instead of cannibalizing them.

What’s still up in the air is the legal repercussion of launching such a streaming service without renegotiating terms or reaching specific agreements with the labels. A similar precedent-setting case filed by EMI against streaming-music service MP3tunes won’t be decided until later this year, leaving the legal area very gray should Apple decide to move forward without officially renegotiating licensing agreements.

Still, they’ve apparently approached the labels ostensibly to obtain their blessing. Whether that blessing is given, and whether or not Apple has the clout to go ahead with the service without it, remains to be seen. We may find out more next Wednesday at Apple’s special event, which is shaping up to be truly action-packed.

Would you want to send your music into the cloud?

Tags: apple, cloud computing, itunes, Lala, major labels, music, riaa, streaming

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Tags: Apple, apple executives, apple servers, Cloud, free streaming music, labels music, Lala, Music, service, steve jobs, streaming service, year

Is the New York Times Jumping the Gun on Paid Content?

In: web resources

21 Jan 2010

There has been a lot of talk of late about how the New York Times would probably be moving towards a paid model for its online content. The newspaper has now come right out and said that starting in early 2011, visitors to NYTimes.com will get "a certain number of articles" for free every month, before asking to pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the print edition would receive full access to the site for no additional charge.

There are still a lot of details to be worked out from the sound of it, and since the change won’t go into effect for a year, maybe they will have enough time to get it right. However, publishers have been trying to get this right for years already, and are still struggling to find that true answer. You have to wonder, what makes them think they can get the details ironed out by then?

It would be one thing to announce it and start doing it. Other publications do this, but a year is an incredibly long time in the online world. There are so many things that could happen and questions that may still remain unanswered in the online news industry. News Corp. for example, has set off a firestorm over whether or not people should be able to freely link to free content on the web. There are just so many things that come into play that it seems rather strange to assume everything will fall into place a year from now. Who knows what condition the industry will be in by then? Publications that are using paid models right now may decide it’s not working and switch to a different plan. To reiterate, a year is a long time, particularly in an industry with so many question marks.

"This announcement allows us to begin the thought process that’s going to answer so many of the questions that we all care about," Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the company chairman and publisher of the newspaper is quoted as saying. "We can’t get this halfway right or three-quarters of the way right. We have to get this really, really right."

I would say the thought process has been in motion for some time, and it’s hard to imagine setting a deadline for the discussion to wrap up in such a timeframe. Does setting such a deadline suggest a hint of desperation? The Times says that any changes will be closely watched by other publishers of online content, and there is no doubt that this will indeed be the case.

The publication refers to Nielsen Online and analysts’ data indicating that NYTimes.com is "by far" the most popular newspaper site in the country with over 17 million readers a month in the U.S. alone.

Do you read the New York Times? Would you pay for frequent access or get your news from other sources? Share your thoughts.

Related Articles:

> New York Time’s Could Announce Paid Model This Week

> Do You Have the "Right" to Link?

> Is This the Answer for Online News Revenue?

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Tags: arthur sulzberger jr, company chairman, New York, news, online, question marks, quot, three quarters, time, true answer, U.S., year

Kevin Rose on “Community”

In: web resources

21 Jan 2010

Last year at The Future of Web Apps (FOWA) London we invited Paul Boag, host of Boagworld and author of the Website Owners Manual, along to conduct a series of interviews with speakers from the event. Over the next few weeks we will be publishing some of these here on the blog.

First up is Kevin Rose. Following on from his FOWA keynote “9 Ways to Take Your Site from One to One Million Users” Paul and his co-host Paul Stanton asked Kevin a few questions on community, user testing and advisory roles.

This interview lasts for 19 minutes.

Read the full transcript by Simon Hamp.