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[park]

Music Streaming to Overtake Downloads

Why do you actually need to have something downloaded on your PC? The streaming idea is really the future.

This may be true. You dont need to physically own the files. But what nobody seems to have figured out yet is that you do need to be able to organize the songs. The music library still needs to feel like it's yours. So the winner is going to be the service that lets you filter out all the "noise" of the music you dont know or want to know about. I think MC is on the right path. I havent tried your music service, but if you could combine the viewschemes/playlists with the store, then I'd say you'd be about 5 years ahead of the competition.

[Peter_T]

It may be the future but it sure ain't the present... I don't know if it's my internet connection or what, but streaming is far from bug-free.  And the quality of most streams is still pretty low. 

Not to say that that won't change...

Also, I still play a lot of records.  They are what I default to if my HTPC is doing anything out of the ordinary.  I just shut it down and play a record. 

[newsposter]

If the providers can't keep their clouds up and the links up 24x7, people will not be migrating their collections from owned-in-the-hand to rented-in-the-cloud.

The biggest cloud company, the one that spends all that web 2.0 money as if it grows on trees, the ones that hire anyone and everyone with a CCNA or CISP or ?, even they can't deliver 'critical' email services 24x7.

Every company out there is trying to emulate the old, 1960s, IBM software rental model for recurring revenue.  Even IBM doesn't believe in it anymore but that hasn't stopped the industry noobs (and con artists) from trying again and again.

Holding a huge company hostage for software rental money is one thing.  Holding ma and pa consumer hostage for pennies every day to play *their* programs and music isn't likely to take off for a long, long time.

[park]

Just look at Spotify. The future is almost here. MC's performer store is MC's future if you ask me. If they get it right, and use the user's local library music info to personalize what the user sees in the store, then JRiver will be offering the best of both worlds: All music, accessible from the cloud, and the User's can't live without music, kept locally, for those 'outages'.

[)p(]

Just look at Spotify. The future is almost here. MC's performer store is MC's future if you ask me. If they get it right, and use the user's local library music info to personalize what the user sees in the store, then JRiver will be offering the best of both worlds: All music, accessible from the cloud, and the User's can't live without music, kept locally, for those 'outages'.

Yes performer is very close...up the bitrate and enhance the local cashing of music you play of often and or want to have locally and its about perfect. The much better bitrate and the upcoming mobile apps are really the only things that spotify premium does better...in all other respects performer is so much better. I'll go back to performer myself when the bitrate gets better.

peter

[newsposter]

guys it's not the programming, it's the 'feeling' people have when they pay over and over (subscription model) for something.  This goes back 20+ years to the old DEC Millicent on-line subscription services, every single one of them has failed regardless of the 'product' on offer.  People like to own things, hold them in their hand, and put them on the shelf where people like the Apple Store and Amazon can't connect overnight and delete things.

[park]

I disagree. It's the ease that's important. If browsing the store is as easy or easier than purchasing and organising the music yourself, and you get to listen to almost every album ever made (in the west), then who would care about paying 10 dollars a month. People who like music spend more than that on CDs in a month anyway, so to be able to listen to millions of songs, and on multiple computers/devices (with "ease of use" being the absolute keyword) you would have to be a dedicated collector/ hoarder to not subscribe.

If this takes off in a big way for MC (and I hope it does), then they would even be able to stop charging for the software and make that a hidden part of the subscription charge too. It would be a cascading success. Free software with a killer music store would bring more people to the software and make it even more popular.

Of course, international distribution is the major hurdle. MC's user base it pretty international. I cant see JRiver negotiating music distribution rights on a per market basis, they just dont care about the store that much. So they need to make a one store for the world model workable somehow. I hope they do. They national boundaries on itunes music store really piss me off. Japan's itunes store's music sucks, is drm ridden, and is expensive. Without a foreign credit card I cant use any other store.

[prod]

who would care about paying 10 dollars a month. People who like music spend more than that on CDs in a month anyway, so to be able to listen to millions of songs, and on multiple computers/devices (with "ease of use" being the absolute keyword) you would have to be a dedicated collector/ hoarder to not subscribe.

I care, I like music, I'm not a collector nor a hoarder. I hate subscription models, in fact I have an intrinsic distrust of them - lucky for me and everyone like me there's plenty of alternatives.

I think streaming compliments vinyl, CD's & downloaded music just fine. I have/use all, and I don't understand why you think people want to limit themselves to just one of those media. It's a little naive to opine something is better and presume it will just replace everything that's been before. Surely they can simply co-exist?

[park]

I'm making the point that both will coexist, and that is MC's strength. It allows people to both organise their music and stream from a vast library. It is the balance that no other software has managed to strike yet. The only caveat being that the MC store needs a lot of work.

My previous post was just a defence of streaming. Read further up the thread to see my argument.

[)p(]

I'm making the point that both will coexist, and that is MC's strength. It allows people to both organise their music and stream from a vast library. It is the balance that no other software has managed to strike yet. The only caveat being that the MC store needs a lot of work.

My previous post was just a defence of streaming. Read further up the thread to see my argument.

Yeah they will coexist...even in one package ie stream anything and keep what you cache/download forever...I think I read somewhere that Virgin in the UK is planning an all you can eat subscription like that to be rolled out soon.

peter

[prod]

I'm making the point that both will coexist, and that is MC's strength. It allows people to both organise their music and stream from a vast library. It is the balance that no other software has managed to strike yet. The only caveat being that the MC store needs a lot of work.

I'm not sure you got that point across, but still, it's a bit of a no-brainer that they will co-exist because they do co-exist (at least in Europe). How far in the future are we talking about, half an hour? 

[park]

In Japan, we are talking far into the future. They like to cling to old business models here.

[prod]

Fair enough, didn't realise.... last.fm and spotify are getting people excited in the UK, not because they are the only available services of the type, but they have catchy names and seem to be getting a hell of a lot of exposure in the press. Marketing makes an incredible difference. The jury seems to be out as to whether they'll ever turn a profit though.

[park]

Yeah, I'm thinking about those services when I speak of the "future" 

Lastfm is a a pay service to all but the british and americans (and not quite good enough to pay for yet imo), and spotify is currently only europe only isnt it. It looks good, but there is no "local" library in it. Only the cloud.

[Oscartume]

We're paying the big three their licensing fees, any probs with streaming live to the web?

[KingSparta]

Why do you actually need to have something downloaded on your PC?

because I want to play music on my IPod\Walkman\In my car, etc...

Streaming is not a fix for everything.

[imugli]

Wow...