SUPERCASTER said:
The iPod must be connected (wired or wireless WiFi/WiMax) to a computer in order to download the "tagged" iTunes. With the necessity of having your iPod connected to your computer any way, why not just listen to web radio (where thousands of stations are available from around the world and many have been tagging tunes for years) and download from iTunes as you are listening?
Many, if not most of the world's broadcast and HD stations are already on the web, along tens of thousands of other stations. WOW! Now that is choice and variety HD radio just can't match. Webradio can share in the new Apple revenue too.
Now there's a real winner!
We already covered this in reply #5:
Radioman100 said:
Apple currently offers the ability to listen to web radio through iTunes, but doesn't own or program any of those stations themselves. I wonder why? Instead, they're forging a partnership with terrestrial radio. Doesn't that strike you as a bit odd? Apple certainly has the capability to do web radio. They could easily offer their own streaming audio, but they're not. Perhaps it's because the future thinking guys at Apple have realized that internet radio is a losing proposition and will continue to be? After all, the big players in that arena are bleeding red ink, and will likely be out of business soon. The RIAA has made sure there will be no profit for anyone in internet radio.
Instead, Apple has chosen to partner with the only really viable promotional tool the recording industry has ever had - radio - and truly become the world's music store. Hear it on HD Radio, buy it on iTunes.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Apple considered the web radio model. Why wouldn't they? If they thought it had the faintest chance of being profitable, I have to think they would be all over it.
The world's largest webcasters are bleeding red ink. That party is now where Napster was in March 2001, not gone yet but definitely circling the bowl. The royalties now required of webcasters make it extremely difficult to become profitable, and have created unacceptable risk in even trying. I figure if two of the new media kingpins, AOL and Yahoo, can't make it work nobody can.
In time, as web radio continues to go away, I suspect most terrestrial broadcasters will also shut down their streaming efforts. The royalties will play a role in that, but the fact that we're moving toward a PPM world and Arbitron doesn't count web radio listening will probably be the final nail. (Oh, geez... Now I'm saying it.)
Essentially, thanks to the RIAA, it has been legislated that the only viable medium for broadcast of music will be terrestrial radio. Of course, they're coming after radio now too, but that's a fight they'll lose, either through the legislative process or in practical implementation. Unlike web radio, the terrestrial radio industry has the muscle to form its own record labels and put the RIAA affiliated ones out of business entirely, at least as far as new music goes.
