Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• More on the Music Industry's Slow Death

  This letter from a former customer further illustrates how the music industry is alienating its customers. While I would like to say I responded with something witty, I must admit to being completely flummoxed. There I sat, a loyal music fan who has shelled out actual money to a business that is supposed to be having financial problems, and the best they can do is tell me to wander the streets of Seattle looking for different internet providers who might allow me to download the music that I have already paid for, music that I have spent the better part of three house trying to listen to, and which is still unusable?” As I said before, sometimes piracy isn't about getting it for free . Given the choice of paying for crippled digital music in two months or downloading free, unrestricted music today, is it really any surprise that they choose the latter? You have record companies paying major labels for airtime, but putting arguably their best promotional vehicle out of business by jacking... Posted Mar 22 2007, 07:48 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Intellectual Property, Rants, Music, Copyright, Law, Audio, Social Behavior, DRM

• A look at Apple and Microsoft strategies

  I've been thinking about some of the interesting strategic decisions that Microsoft has made lately. I already discussed their curious IP licensing strategy , and their choices with Zune and Windows Media Player have me similarly baffled. In many ways, these moves have been something I expect more from Apple than Microsoft. Apple has always been known for delivering closed systems, controlling the experience from end to end. Apple software runs on an Apple OS on Apple hardware. Conversely, Microsoft has thrived largely because it has recognized the value in delivering not just products, but platforms. Office and Windows are both successful not just because of what they do as a product, but because they leave room for third party developers. It is those developers, not just Microsoft itself, that really enable a true ecosystem. Even the Xbox 360 has been a platform, not just for the media content providers, but now for the independent game developers. Given their history, it should come... Posted Jan 01 2007, 02:42 PM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Rants, Gadgets, Things that amuse me, Music, Innovation, Business, Microsoft, Apple, Audio

• Podcast support in Windows Media Player 11

  There is one other issue I need to deal with before I can totally switch to Windows Media Player 11 - podcast support. Microsoft made the head-scratching decision not to include native podcast support - one area where iTunes really excelled. Someone wrote a plugin over the summer , but it doesn't work in WMP 11 and Vista and he's not maintaining it right now . There are countless other third party aggregators (Doppler is an old favorite), but I need to spend some time figuring it all out. My key requirements are: Automatic downloads (no manual intervention) Synchronization to the device (at most 1 click, preferably none) Removal of old podcasts (preferably removed from the device after they've been listened to, but I'll accept support for the last, say, 3 episodes - as long as Steve Gillmor doesn't break CalacanisCast into 17 parts). For those of you not using iTunes, how are you managing your subscriptions? Note: I'll update this post over time as I refine the strategy. Posted Dec 28 2006, 02:56 PM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Rants, Gadgets, Music, Blogging, Apple, Audio, Podcast