iTunes needs to get community minded
- 20 Mar 08, 12:23 GMT
There have been a lot of of late about the future of , most of them sparked by a FT story which said Apple was considering bundling free music with each iPod/iPhone sold.
By free, it means doing a deal with record companies so that in return for a share of the purchase price of an iPod consumers get unlimited access to music.
If true, and I have no knowledge either way, it would turn the iTunes business model on its head because Apple and Steve Jobs have always banged the drum for music you own, not music you rent.
Of course iTunes has recently moved to a rental movie model, alongside a download model, so the potential to mix and match is there.
But business models aside the missing ingredient here is community.
At the moment iTunes is an old fashioned application - a stand-alone download that organises your music and videos and syncs your iPod or iTunes.
But it's an isolated, unconnected experience. You can use plug ins like to bridge the user divide, creating community playlists etc, but I'm surprised that Apple has never evolved iTunes into a more connected piece of software.
One of the reasons for this, of course, is that a single user has a pretty limited license when it comes to sharing his or her music.
You can share music across a local area network, for example, but that sharing does not extend to iPods or iPhones, or even the wider internet.
But a rental music model, or one attached to a physical device, would allow Apple to open up iTunes.
Friends lists, recommended playlists etc would become perfectly possible - as could Apple widgets for use inside social networks like or .
For example, I could download and listen to a friend's playlist he or she had compiled for me, because we both share a rental license for all our music.
And the wi-fi connectivity of new iPods, plus the cellular connectivity of iPhones, means in theory this could happen whenever, wherever.
I could have music pushed to my iPhone just like e-mail, and in return I could comment, tag, build a new playlist and push it back to my friends.
All of this is beginning to happen already with offerings from and and with in the US, and if Apple doesn't move soon it might find itself overseeing a dinosaur - a digital jukebox offering music tethered to individuals and to specific devices.
I'd love to hear how you are enjoying your music; are you using a home server and accessing it via a mobile phone for example, or would you be interested in sharing your music widely?
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Rory Cellan-Jones is the 大象传媒's technology correspondent.
Maggie Shiels is the 大象传媒's tech reporter based in Silicon Valley.
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Comments
"But it's an isolated, unconnected experience. You can use plug ins like Last FM to bridge the user divide, creating community playlists etc, but I'm surprised that Apple has never evolved iTunes into a more connected piece of software"
One word Darren - Podcasts.
"You can share music across a local area network, for example, but that sharing does not extend to iPods or iPhones, or even the wider internet."
This feature did exist (iTunes 4 I think), but was quickly pulled when people figured out how to save the streamed music to their hard drives. Much like the trouble the 大象传媒 is having at the moment with iPlayer streams.
Also, iTunes has 'Just for You' that gives you choices of music based on your purchases, 'Celebrity Playlists', and 'My iTunes', all based around the idea of sharing your musical tastes.
Apple cannot do any more than their licence permits. If they unlocked all your music, I know a couple of bodies that would come down on them like a ton of bricks (RIAA for one).
I use iTunes as it is, and at the moment, see no need for it to change!
Call em a dinosaur if you want, but I think that this method ids by far the strongest and most appropriate.
When you think of free music, the first thing I think of is the charts. When Adele released Hometown Glory on the Radio 1 website, freely to download, it couldn't get into the charts, yet everyone I knew had it, then she ended up at number 2 with her next single.
I am more than happy paying 79p for a song, and really don't see a need for things to change...
Yet!
itunes is very restricted and not very accessible. I much prefere using Anapod which operates like Windows Explorer. You can easily transfer music from PC to ipod and ipod to PC (something itunes wont allow). Also it doesnt crash like itunes often does.
Apple like to control how people use their products but thats only going to alienate the users and give competitors the inititive to create better software or more accessable products.
They are genius ideas you are suggesting. That would certainly make me consider an ipod, right now the lack of flexibility means I am staying away.
Guy
the itunes business model, while being relatively archaic, is in my opinion a very good approach to supplying the masses with the content they want at a price that is more than reasonable. the fact that all music is only $0.99 cents to own forever, and only a dollar more gives you that freedom for tv shows is also fantastic. the biggest place where i see room for improvement is the movie rental/buying, because the current collection is simply not expansive enough-yet.
as far as the wi-fi enabled devices, apple brilliantly gave them the ability to update as new programs are written. what this allows can not yet even be imagined as it gives these new devices the ability to evolve.
itunes is a one stop shop for everything in entertainment and will continue to do so for quite a while. just wait till june with the release of the app store, things should get REALLY interesting.
I'd much rather own the music I have paid for than rent it; if Apple moves to a rental model I will go elsewhere for my music. I buy music, it should be mine, just as if I have bought a CD. I typically burn purchased iTunes tracks onto disk and import them as MP3s anyway so I have no issues with sharing my own files among my own devices. If others want it, they buy their own copy. Apple went a long way with interoperability when they offered DRM-free tracks, and they would be unwise to change things up now.
It would not be the first time Apple would propose something already existent as "revolutionary" (the flat-plan rental music service, similar to Rapsody), after bragging about it only few months before...
Let's be honest, most people who are tech savvy enough to be bothered about sharing music in the way you're talking about don't experience any of the problems you describe with itunes. It's always allowed you to import music from loads of sources, not just the itunes store and many peoples iTunes libraries are made up of music illegally downloaded from torrent sites. I know very few people who still pay for music and Apple hasn't done anything in iTunes to prevent this.
I use the singular iTunes and iPod to listen to my extensive music collection. Apple lets me import all my music, so it's not like I have to buy everything from them. I can get my music wherever I want and then bring it to iTunes.
And it's easy enough to share musical experiences with my friends. Apple lets me burn music to a CD as many times as I want, which I can then use as I see fit.
And I still hear a lot about what my friends like to listen to. But instead of interacting with a piece of software and friend's lists and whatnot, I interact directly with the people who's opinions I am trying to collect.
"If true, and I have no knowledge either way"
Hmmm - another total waste of license payers money.
Here's a tip Darren, why not try getting off your fat expense account and posting about something you do know about. You may even try (I know it sounds unlikely) something not about Apple?
Yours,
Bored non iMac/iPod/iPhone owner
ipods are not flexible enough and for the same money as an ipod, i can buy a device with more features and memory and be able to move the media between my mp3/4 player or PC or mobile or PDA etc as required
somebody tell me WHY does it cost 79p for each track?!
79p x 13 tracks =拢10.27... am i missing something? for this i could BUY the CD and copy it even if i had to go back 15 years and do a 'tape to tape' audio copy.
i thought downloads did away with cd manufacturing costs, supply chain markups etc?
the ipod... ooh great idea lets all buy one.....NOT
you've all been sucked in and are now stuck with an inflexible device.
i want to be able to play the media i legally bought on cd/dvd or downloaded on my mp3/4 player, pc, mobile and pda without restrictions... and i can.
Firstly, with iTunes great bonjour facility you can use iTunes to share networked computers music using both Windows and Mac. Secondly, there are plenty of free programs out there that will let you copy music from your iPod to your computer.
The fact is that most these restrictions are because of the record companies. Content is key and in order to get content you sometimes have to sleep with the devil. I don't see a rental model taking off for music. Music has never been rented and is something you listen to over and over again unlike movies that you only see once or twice. I love the iTunes Store and how easy and quick it is, sometimes too much so as I find myself buying more and more! I welcome change and improvement but at the moment iTunes is obviously a winning business model by a wide margin. Why are record companies worried?! At 4 billion downloads (125 million alone on Christmas day) that is a huge revenue stream for record companies, who may I add are taking the largest cut for each track, followed by Apple and then the artist.
Of course, the amusing thing is that iTunes does let you see what your friends are listening too if they chose to let you see. Both MSN Messenger and Apple's own iChat, integrate with iTunes so that your current track pops up along side your status for all to see (iChat even goes as far as to make the details a link into the iTunes Store).
What's more Apple has had 'social' tools built into iTunes from the start -- well before the current trend for social networking websites. Remember, it was initially launched with the slogan 'Rip. Mix. Burn.' and still makes it very easy to create a mix CD (even of music purchased from the iTunes Store) that can be shared. Far more fun to give a friend a CD than to point them at a playlist online.
Anyway, what's more fun plugging someone's headphones into your iPod to play them a track or just sending them a link over the net. I know which I prefer...
iTunes is fantastic right now and soon I can cut up my Blockbuster card too.
I want to own my music forever, I'm not paying for listening, may as well have a transistor radio.
iTunes is cool, it plays through my home stereo with pod-casts too, it plays in my car, it plays on the bus or climbing and it's all with me when I answer the phone too, it great!
Great, that's exactly what I want; more people telling me what to listen to.
MyFace and SpaceBook etc. just don't do it for me. If I want a music recommendation I'll ask for one when I talk to my friends (talking, do people remember that? before texts, email and "social networking" that's what we did).
To me iTunes is like a good old fashioned record store that's open 24 hours and delivers immediately. I'm not even happy about user reviews: I don't care what Jane Public thinks of such and such.
To my mind all iTunes can do to make its service better is: Make ALL downloads at-least 192kbps AAC, and reduce the price to 拢0.49. No DRM on ALL tracks would be welcomed, but I know that's out of Apple's control.
I use a thing called a "hifi" to listen to my music. This plays things called "Compact Discs" (CD's for short). These are 12 cm silver plastic discs which store high quality uncompressed, non DRM music. They make Mp3, AAC, WMA and ATRAC and the rest of the lousy lossy compressed formats (even at their highest quality) sound like medium wave on a bad night. (People who think they sound as good either need to invest in some cotton wool buds or to broaden their horizons. 拢99.99 audio gear from Tesco doesn't constitute "hifi" nor does some cheerless mp3 docking station.)
I have some "Super Audio Compact Disc" (SACD) and "Digital Versatile Disc" - Audio (DVD-A)if I really want to give my "hifi" a work out.
I buy all my CDs, SACD's and DVD-A's from a "shop". I usually buy albums because I've liked previous songs or they've been recommended by "friends".
I would agree that iTunes and the integration of the online music store and the iPod is becoming increasingly outdated, not simply because of the lack of community features.
I have over 400GB of legally aquired music sitting on a music server. However, while I would like to use the iTunes software I use to manage my iPod to organise all of my music, I cannot. Not only does it not support the FLAC lossless format I prefer, it crashes every time I attempt to add my music to its library.
Due to this, I use Winamp for my collection, which supports FLAC and allows me to stream all of my music to any Internet connected device, including my phone and my iPod Touch. iTunes is left to managing my iPod, and even then I need to use an assortment of converter programs to make it usable with my music.
I should not have to convert all of my music to an inferior quality to use a software app which offers fewer features than its rivals.
I do believe that whilst iTunes did to an extent pioneer the notion of both acceptable and affordable downloading. However, i fear that apple are once again becoming something of a style-based entity in their software. I don't think anyone realistically expects to be able to freely exchange music permanently between devices, but it has to be said, there is a good example in the Zune Wi-Fi link, and whilst that was between two players, it could be extended across a broader network. The notion of sending music, or using the latest generation of iPods as a sort of music/content based blackberry device has an incredible amount of scope, and would be a reasonable proposition if there were a time limit on music-received, with an option to purchase thereafter. I can't see any failings realistically within such a system, and it would bring a personal touch to the old days of 'i like this, search for it on napster' but within a legitimate framework. There are massive gains to be made, with very little loss. Imagine everyone you met with a wi-fi enabled portable device (iPod or otherwise!) being a highly local radio station. Certainly, it would be much better than listening to a song via the leakage of someone else's earphones......