Wednesday, January 04, 2006
The beginning of the end
I recently started updating my laptop. Upgraded to the latest and greatest... Don't you just love open source? You need new features/applications... Just download them. If you are wondering... I am running Gentoo linux
I discovered
I now know exactly what their logo say.
This is definitely one of the best players I have seen in a long time. It allows you to organise your music, keeps track of your favourite bands, even downloads the cover of the CD from the net. If I click on the cover it takes me straight to the amazon page so I can buy the CD. Then again I have it already... Fetch the lyrics of the current song playing... But those are just the standard features. Now here is the real amazing thing. It is integrated with a web site called last.fm So what does this mean? If you click on the link you get to see my profile... You can see what music I listen to... Once I listened to enough music they can work out what my taste is. Now the brilliant part, other people with a similar taste might have discovered another band that I have not even heard of yet. So based on the profiles they can suggest other music that I would like... No need to get big record companies involved, to market and sell the CD. A band can now sell their own music on their web site. If people like their music it will spread like wild fire. Gone are the days where the record companies make the money and only pay scraps to the bands.
With the latest fiasco of Sony putting DRM software on their CDs to stop piracy it allows hackers to gain access to your PC... Personally I will make a point of staying away from Sony/BMG CDs. People pirate CDs if they are too expensive, and the greedy record companies just want more money...increasing the prices. Now they even install software on your computer without your consent, treating their customers like criminals... If a store treats me badly I never go back. To me that is simply too much.
I will do my part to tell people about last.fm. The concept is brilliant, it is good enough to replace the existing monopoly in the industry. Technology has caught up... Now it is just a matter of time.
An afterthought...Unfortunately this concept requires broadband... Countries without will lack behind, poor Africa will once again be out of the trading loop since only the richest people can afford broadband.
I discovered
I now know exactly what their logo say.
This is definitely one of the best players I have seen in a long time. It allows you to organise your music, keeps track of your favourite bands, even downloads the cover of the CD from the net. If I click on the cover it takes me straight to the amazon page so I can buy the CD. Then again I have it already... Fetch the lyrics of the current song playing... But those are just the standard features. Now here is the real amazing thing. It is integrated with a web site called last.fm So what does this mean? If you click on the link you get to see my profile... You can see what music I listen to... Once I listened to enough music they can work out what my taste is. Now the brilliant part, other people with a similar taste might have discovered another band that I have not even heard of yet. So based on the profiles they can suggest other music that I would like... No need to get big record companies involved, to market and sell the CD. A band can now sell their own music on their web site. If people like their music it will spread like wild fire. Gone are the days where the record companies make the money and only pay scraps to the bands.
With the latest fiasco of Sony putting DRM software on their CDs to stop piracy it allows hackers to gain access to your PC... Personally I will make a point of staying away from Sony/BMG CDs. People pirate CDs if they are too expensive, and the greedy record companies just want more money...increasing the prices. Now they even install software on your computer without your consent, treating their customers like criminals... If a store treats me badly I never go back. To me that is simply too much.
I will do my part to tell people about last.fm. The concept is brilliant, it is good enough to replace the existing monopoly in the industry. Technology has caught up... Now it is just a matter of time.
An afterthought...Unfortunately this concept requires broadband... Countries without will lack behind, poor Africa will once again be out of the trading loop since only the richest people can afford broadband.
# posted @ Wednesday, January 04, 2006 10:22 AM 
