U2's partnership with Apple is truly remarkable. I can't think of a better synergy between two organizations. But while to partnership does benefit each party, I have to wonder if it's all that good for the on-line music industry as a whole. From reading the press releases I realized that U2 would release its first single, Vertigo, as an iTunes only deal and Apple would be the sole distributor of the complete U2 collection. What I did not realize is that currently iTunes is the only place where you can download the new U2 album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (I image in a few weeks it will be available else where). This is not just an Apple thing (although they are the most successful). Currently, every on-line provider is rushing to sign exclusive deals with artists and labels. What's the big deal you may be asking? The deal is the mainstream consumer won't jump into the on-line music scene until there is a standardization of content and technology.
The on-line distribution of music is much different than the tradition record store model. Like it or not on-line user's have a longer term relationship with the seller of a song. The seller maintains the digital rights management technology for the life of the song. If they want to track their library or adjust the rights (which computer can play what song) they have to go back the site that sold them the song. With this situation who would want to buy from numerous sources?
Unfortunately, it gets even more complicated then that when you consider prepaid gift cards and playback technology. One of the reasons I chose to download music from Napster (the legal Napster) was that they were the first to offer gift cards for songs encoded in the WMA format. I like the gift cards because I'm very cheap and probably would download only 4-5 songs a year if I did not receive them as gifts. And as much as I like iTunes until now I have hesitated to buy from them because of the portable listening strategy. For the most part that strategy can be defined as 'If you want to listen to it outside your computer you'd better buy an iPod, and oh yeah they start at $250'. I think iPods are cool, but they don't fill my need. I don't need to carry every single song I own in a large (admittedly getting smaller) device that costs an arm and a leg. Instead, I'd prefer a micro sized device that holds 40-50 songs that I can carry in my pocket or jog with.
In the end I'm willing to deal with all these obstacles (worse case I download from iTunes, burn a CD and rip it back to a mp3 or wma for my personal use), because I'm more or less an early adopter. But I don't see many of my non-technical friends wanting to put up with this. At this point the only solution I see is for them is to jump fully into the iTunes / iPod scene. Either that or put up with Apples ability to gartner great exclusive deals.
In the short-term these exclusive deals will be helpful to narrow down the on-line distribution market to 2 or 3 players (my guess Apple, Napster, and one other). In the longer term I believe the mechanics need to mature before you'll see the early - late majority jumping in. Top on my wishlist is better device support for the iTunes AAC format.
I attended my first How Design Conference this week in Chicago, IL. It was quite a bit different than my expectations. I went into it thinking we'd be learning about design techniques, but more of the time was spent talking about creativity, brain-storming and inspiribility. So the real question... was it valuable... The short answer YES. While you don't walk out of a session thinking you tangibily learned much you do walk out slightly changed in your thinking.
