By: Gino Lattarulo
Referring to Part 1 of ” The Future Of Digital Music”
So Who , or what, is going to win the digital music wars? Will digital downloads from the likes of Apple iTunes (NASDAQ:AAPL) still be around in 10 years or will everything be self contained in a “Cloud” structure.
Lets look at the pros and cons of each and then I’ll give my .01 cent opinion.
Digital downloads: Let’s face it, MP3.com changed the world. As soon as music files became coded for quick transfer over the Internet, the whole place exploded. The need for tangible CD’s quickly diminished and was replaced by digital players. The sound files have an infinite shelf life, limited only by the condition of the actual player itself. The consumer can purchase an entire album of songs for a lower price ( including artwork ) without ever having to leave their home. Not only that, but the likes of pioneering file sharing sites like Napster provided the masses with as much free music as they could consume. It was, and still is, a time of mass confusion and evolving.
Cloud Formats: Online radio has evolved into personal web libraries. Sites like Grooveshark and even Youtube (NASDAQ:GOOG) allow you to pull up any song in the world and create unlimited playlists for your own custom library of virtually any song in existence. We can’t really lump Pandora or Slacker into the cloud category because they are exclusive to radio style streaming, meaning that the user has no control over what plays other than the music genre.
So what does all of this mean for the direction of your music? Personally I think the future lies almost entirely in the clouds. So to speak. It will take some time to realistically widen the scope of the Internet to allow for such an increase in web streaming. The obstacle here is still buffering and streaming coverage for mobile users, but as more and more mobile devices and hotspots (like your car) become tethered to the internet we will see the direction shift. Devices like Apple’s Sky Dock, which has an FM modulator and boost antennae built in, is made for Sirius / XM (NASDAQ: SIRI) and enables the user to stream their iPhone. Although this device is seemingly proprietary, it gives us a glimpse of the what will happen in the coming years with Cloud streaming.
The main trade off with the Cloud structure versus actual downloads is sound quality. Online streaming is pretty much maxed out at 192 kbps while digital downloads can be had at CD quality bit rates. On the other hand, in the Clouds you have any song you want at your finger tips without having to pay for it and you can store the songs in an online virtual library. The next ten years will definitely be very interesting. When I was a kid ( I mean younger) I always wondered what would replace the CD. I only wish I could see the evolution of music 100 years from now.
Of course, If there is actually anything left after the governments of the world get done burning everything to the ground, we’ll be back to playing tiger skin bongos and bone flutes for entertainment anyway.
Peace.
