Thursday, September 02, 2004
So the big news right now is online music stores trying to take on iTunes. It's a joke.
First there was BuyMusic.com which probably had the best interface I saw from all the new stores (the best copy of iTunes), but it failed because it was buy.com and they suck.
Then real.com came out with their store and they failed. Now they have a website Freedom of Music Choice which is a website disguised as a grassroots effort even though they created it, accusing Apple and the iPod for creating a closed system. How about taking responsibility for your own problems?
They had a petition for people to sign saying Apple should open up the iPod for real.com music store songs. Most people ended up bashing real and the shitty products they make. Real took down the public comments and said "We have done this to reduce the spread of harmful new viruses which harvest email addresses from the web cache of infected computers." BULLSHIT. YOU GUYS SUCK. DIE DIE DIE.
AND NOW THE BIG NEWS. MICROSHIT HAS COPIED ITUNES AS WELL. Yes, folks, it took them over a year to do it, but they finally copied iTunes. Oh, but it's in beta right now. And they only have half their library up right now. Oh, and it doesn't work with iPods. How do you play on an iPod? Microsoft says "burn the songs on a CD, then import them into iTunes." Great! You just told the whole world how to circumvent your DRM. I hope the RIAA busts your asses.
As expected, Microsoft is now in the game with ZERO innovation, and a half ass, half released copycat.
The bottom line is everyone is coming out with their own store, but NO ONE is doing a single bit of innovation. Apple's store, jukebox, and player have so many amazing advantages that they can't even advertise them all.
For example, Instant-On. When you click on a song in iTunes from the music store, or iTunes from someone else's computer, or a quicktime movie from the web, or anything else streaming, it starts to play IMMEDIATELY. There is ZERO buffering. That's cool.
First there was BuyMusic.com which probably had the best interface I saw from all the new stores (the best copy of iTunes), but it failed because it was buy.com and they suck.
Then real.com came out with their store and they failed. Now they have a website Freedom of Music Choice which is a website disguised as a grassroots effort even though they created it, accusing Apple and the iPod for creating a closed system. How about taking responsibility for your own problems?
They had a petition for people to sign saying Apple should open up the iPod for real.com music store songs. Most people ended up bashing real and the shitty products they make. Real took down the public comments and said "We have done this to reduce the spread of harmful new viruses which harvest email addresses from the web cache of infected computers." BULLSHIT. YOU GUYS SUCK. DIE DIE DIE.
AND NOW THE BIG NEWS. MICROSHIT HAS COPIED ITUNES AS WELL. Yes, folks, it took them over a year to do it, but they finally copied iTunes. Oh, but it's in beta right now. And they only have half their library up right now. Oh, and it doesn't work with iPods. How do you play on an iPod? Microsoft says "burn the songs on a CD, then import them into iTunes." Great! You just told the whole world how to circumvent your DRM. I hope the RIAA busts your asses.
As expected, Microsoft is now in the game with ZERO innovation, and a half ass, half released copycat.
The bottom line is everyone is coming out with their own store, but NO ONE is doing a single bit of innovation. Apple's store, jukebox, and player have so many amazing advantages that they can't even advertise them all.
For example, Instant-On. When you click on a song in iTunes from the music store, or iTunes from someone else's computer, or a quicktime movie from the web, or anything else streaming, it starts to play IMMEDIATELY. There is ZERO buffering. That's cool.