Wednesday, September 05, 2007
new iPods: new hardware, but more importantly...
Today Apple revamped its iPod lineup, and I am doubtless one of thousands commenting on it. What isn’t news to me is the range of hardware selections in the iPod family. What caught my attention instead were the availability of the iTunes music store to “Touch” wireless iPods and the free availability of the service at Starbucks. Despite my aversions to Starbucks, I have to admit this is killer marketing for this capable device.
This idea of immediate sales of digital music direct to devices has been the grail for developers for years. I was involved in 2000 – 2001 with a company called ETC Music, Inc. We were developing one of the first direct-to-device MP3 point-of-sale stations. The biggest obstacles we faced were the hardware wasn’t available and the music industry wasn’t ready.
No clear winner had emerged from the range of MP3 players, and the iPod was not quite a household name yet. Bluetooth was not yet implemented and everybody had their own proprietary connector and software. WiFi was newly integrated into Apple products, but hadn’t yet gained the widespread acceptance we see today. Additionally, the music industry was reluctant to offer music online - Napster had the labels spooked about the future of their format.
Apple has taken care of both of those issues by integrating purchase functionality into wireless iPods and building up a strong enough customer base (and industry rep) with iTunes. Direct-to-device may be the nail in the coffin for brick and mortar stores. But it will also open up far more opportunities: buy albums right at shows. Go to a movie and if you like the soundtrack, you can buy it right there. These examples may sound unbelievable or cheesy, but they offer a high convenience value to consumers and present POS opportunities anywhere.
This idea of immediate sales of digital music direct to devices has been the grail for developers for years. I was involved in 2000 – 2001 with a company called ETC Music, Inc. We were developing one of the first direct-to-device MP3 point-of-sale stations. The biggest obstacles we faced were the hardware wasn’t available and the music industry wasn’t ready.
No clear winner had emerged from the range of MP3 players, and the iPod was not quite a household name yet. Bluetooth was not yet implemented and everybody had their own proprietary connector and software. WiFi was newly integrated into Apple products, but hadn’t yet gained the widespread acceptance we see today. Additionally, the music industry was reluctant to offer music online - Napster had the labels spooked about the future of their format.
Apple has taken care of both of those issues by integrating purchase functionality into wireless iPods and building up a strong enough customer base (and industry rep) with iTunes. Direct-to-device may be the nail in the coffin for brick and mortar stores. But it will also open up far more opportunities: buy albums right at shows. Go to a movie and if you like the soundtrack, you can buy it right there. These examples may sound unbelievable or cheesy, but they offer a high convenience value to consumers and present POS opportunities anywhere.
Labels: ipod mp3 digital music apple wireless
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I was pretty impressed with the ability to purchase right on the device too - Now, if only more labels would get on the DRM-free bandwagon - I might actually use this service!
Hey Andrew -- my iPod touch is on order. I want to try the interface (no iPhone for me) and the WiFi purchase. So much of the ETC Music stuff we worked on is being built in pretty much the way we envisioned it., except that the "kiosk" (I can say that now!) is built right into the damned DAP. Gotta love Apple for pushing this forward.
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