Digital Home Thoughts: PC World: "Pondering Digital Music's Future"

"Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store was under discussion at New York's Digital Music Forum this week, even though the company did not officially attend the event. RealNetworks Vice President of Music Services Sean Ryan offered the keynote at the show. He said, "2004 will be a great year for digital music", and said that successful services need to supply a "mix of offerings, multiple services (a la carte and subscription), control of the media player, and the ability to efficiently acquire customers and to get music off the computer." With the industry ready to reach critical mass, Ryan shared his belief that the industry is now closed to new start-ups. "The time is over for start-ups in this sector," he said."

This articles goes on to talk about some of the issues affecting online music stores today, and their customers, namely the ugly thorn of file format incompatibilities. This part me me roll my eyes though, because it has the bitter ring of truth to it:

"Jonathan Potter, who leads the Digital Music Association, warned that Apple may face unexpected resistance to its success...some music industry dinosaurs regard Apple's success as an indication that usage restrictions are too lax, and 'should be tightened.' "

Doesn't that just sound like something a clueless music executive would say? Gosh, it couldn't POSSIBLY be that the reason iTunes is enjoying some success is that they hit upon a model that consumers actually want to spend money on, one that gives them a reasonable and affordable alternative to peer to peer networks? :roll: