I had the iPad since its release in the States so I had some time to play around with it. One thing that has to be said is that there still aren’t that many great apps but this isn’t the devices fault. It’s my fault for buying it so early. Also, the fact that I can’t buy apps on the iPad with my UK iTunes account is inconvenient. I have to buy the apps in iTunes on my mac and then sync them over which really disturbs the experience. Those issues will work themselves out over the next few months.
The biggest criticism for the iPad seems to be the fact that it’s hard to say what its purpose is. “The iPad is just a big iPod Touch” I hear a lot. And this couldn’t be truer. And this is why it’s so great.
The size of the device is what makes it so valuable for the media and entertainment space. Even though functionality on the iPad might be something we have already seen on the iPhone and iPod Touch it feels very much different just because the device is bigger. Consuming media on a bigger interface doesn’t only decrease the amount of scrolling or page turning but changes the overall experience. Everyone who tried to read a book on the iPhone will know what I’m talking about. It works fine but reading a book on the bigger device is actually pleasant whereby reading longs texts on the smaller screen means endless scrolling so you spend more time interacting with the device as oppose to taking in the text.
Another example: I normally use kayak for my flight planning and they have released an iPad app early on. The big app does exactly what the iPhone app does but the overall result is very much different just due to the amount of information displayed at the same time.
The lack of additional functionality on the iPad is not a weakness but a strength. And if you ask yourself whether you need one: no, you don’t. But you want one if you like to consume media and entertainment digitally.
The comfort zone. It’s hard to complain when your in it but you know that something is wrong. You become stagnant and you don’t seem to develop - something that can not only be frustrating but also dangerous.
I don’t actually want to quit my job at Last.fm (I do really like it) but it’s time to set new challenges and see new things. I have been in London for about eight years and been with Last.fm for four of them and now it’s time for something new.
One of the most important things in any job is that you keep learning. It is part of your pay package and if you don’t gain any knowledge you are essentially underpaid. Applying that logic I was paid extremely well for years at Last.fm: I met a lot of great people, learned about the business (and its countless issues) and saw some amazing places. Unfortunately by definition any learning curve has to flatten out so it’s time to find something where I can start at the steep end again.
Raila and I will move to North America early next year after taking some time off and spending a few months in South America. We will live in Vancouver. My last day with Last.fm will be the 2nd October 2009 – please get in touch if there is anything you need before I’m off.
If you have seen me recently on a panel or doing a presentation you would have noticed that there is one topic that I’m very interested in: how the consumption of recorded music has changed over the years and how it will continue to develop.
Looking into the past is vital but also fairly easy. The future is the tricky one and for some the most fascinating: I want to find out how we will consume recorded music in 10 years from now but to find some good answers I might need some help.
This is how I came up with my idea for a panel at SXSW next year in Austin. As you might know, they encourage people to come up with ideas for a panel or presentation and post them on their website for anyone to vote on.
Of course you guessed it by now: please vote for my panel suggestion at the SXSW 2010 Panelpicker. You can see from my description on there what I’m trying to do. Also, please suggest people that should be on that panel by posting a comment here or on the Panelpicker. Maybe I won’t be the only one that’s trying to promote themselves.
I went to the UK launch of Chris Anderson‘s new book ‘FREE‘ last night which unsurprisingly was a very busy event since he is a bit of a digital media pop star. With being a celebrity come the critics that have to proof that your ideas are in fact rubbish and that try to find examples where “The Long Tail” does not work and where “FREE” destroyed jobs.
I’m not one of those guys. However I had to think of something when Chris was talking about some of his ideas last night. They gave out free copies of the book (an abridged version, not the full one) so I can even quote him now. He is writing:
“What the Internet does is combine all three, compounding the price declines with a triple play of technology: processors, bandwidth, and storage. As a result, the net annual deflation rate of the online World is nearly 50 percent, which is to say that whatever it costs YouTube to stream a video today will cost half as much in a year.”
Although I agree that the above applies to any technology costs this does not work for any licensing expenses. The licensing fees for content is already the biggest expense for many services that stream or otherwise deliver content to consumers. Although there is certain evidence that the cost of content is going down (the PRS has recently lowered they per stream royalty for music streaming services) I don’t believe that this trend will keep on going at a rate of 50% per year.
Nevertheless, Chris Anderson’s book ‘FREE’ looks like another must read for anyone who is interested in how technology changes moder day economics.
Many of my readers will of course be aware of Seth Godin but for those who haven’t heard of him: make sure you check out his blog, his books and start with the talk below from TED.
If you feel like me and you need some inspiration at work after a long weekend just watch this:
Helsinki reminded me of Hamburg. Maybe is was the lake in the centre or the lack of an Old Town (which was like in Hamburg destroyed in WW2). But most significantly I had a brilliant time in Helsinki, just like whenever I visit my home town.
I was there for an event organized by the YLE (“the Finnish BBC”) called “Embracing the music – music, Internet and public service” last Friday and it was well organized, informative and a lot of fun. Often these kinds of events are exactly the opposite.
As well as taking part in a big panel discussion I did a presentation (hopefully) giving an overview of the development of digital recorded music over the recent years and where it might be heading in the future. It had the catchy title “Development of digital recorded music and the way we consume it – the past, present and future”. I even had slides (which I never do).
My talk was built on the following assumption:
Music is like a rumour:
It will spread around and one cannot control it
It has a creator but no owner
It has a ‘value’ but it can’t be set by the creator
“Control” is the key term here – we lost it when we started digitizing our recorded music and started to conntect our computers to a network. Control over recorded music is something we will never get back and any effort on this is wasted energy.
Today I’ve been sharing my challenging experience while getting my motorbike license but also mentioned a topic that we will probably discuss in more detail over the next few months: what is happening with advertising supported music services?
I mentioned the Techcrunch article on imeem. Please note that there is not a lot of truth in the details of this but it certainly raises a big issue for the digital music industry: what if ad supported music streaming does not work?
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Today I’ve been sharing my challenging experience while getting my motorbike license but also mentioned a topic that we will probably discuss in more detail over the next few months: what is happening with advertising supported music services?
