Myspace Music

Finally, an iTunes competitor that might actually be worthy of the phrase - Myspace Music.

It's got context alongside the content - user reviews, shared playlists, band information, lyrics, etc.

It's got a business model that actually stands a chance (i.e. free to the consumer, with adverts alongside streaming music). What's more, they seem to have the right setup - Myspace and the record companies will share equity stakes in the business, so they will all share in its success.

Technically, it's not restricted by crazy DRM. I like the dual options of both streaming and download - why not provide both, and see which works best?

It sits atop a site already heaving with music discussions. In fact, you could say that a social network has finally provided something for its users to talk about!

Here's hoping they can compete with iTunes, Apple's proprietary platform. I don't see anyone beating Apple for the iPod / iPhone, but it would be nice to have more competition for the content!

iTunes: the adverts

Surprising Apple rumours appeared last week from, of all places, the Financial Times. Apparently,

Apple is in discussions with the big music companies about a radical new business model that would give customers free access to its entire iTunes music library in exchange for paying a premium for its iPod and iPhone devices.

It's surprising because Apple has been so successful with their existing business model. Why would they go through the risk of changing it, especially if competitors like Nokia already have similar models in place?

I suspect that Apple sense a new market opportunity, and it comes from iTunes. If the iTunes store becomes free to consumers, then its usage will rocket by an astronomical amount - that's the basic law of pricing. Apple could monetize that usage by turning it into a website (rather than client application), and introducing adverts.

Apple's new browser, Safari 3.1, already contains the key components to get this done - the new HTML5 <audio> and <video> elements, plus offline file storage for your music collection. They've been circulating Safari as widely as possible - even on Windows - and now we know why. Apple could make iTunes far more 'sticky' for consumers (and hence get more ad money) by adding context to the music - user reviews, lyrics, recommendation lists, and artist news. For just $20 per iPod, Steve Jobs would be guaranteed one of the most lucrative websites on the internet.

So, is iTunes finally coming to the web? We'll find out by the end of this year.

The BBC's iPlayer

What a success the BBC's streaming iPlayer has been. It's even managed to single-handedly increase streaming internet usage in the UK by 200% in one month! Not bad for an application strung together in just a few months.

I'm still not sure the BBC quite realises what a revolution it has started. The iPlayer frees the BBC from the tyranny of the channel, which has foisted on us all prime-time game shows, padding TV to fills schedules, minority interests at midnight, and endless repeats of every programme except the one you really want to watch.

I've written some ideas for enhancing the iPlayer down, to show just what's possible with this new platform.

Increase the time limit from seven days to seventy years

The BBC has the most incredible back catalog of any broadcaster in the world. But much of it is under historic rights agreements that prevent it from being freely available to the public. So the BBC must initiate an enormous program of identifying and publishing content that's already free, re-negotiating contracts to free up historic material, and ensuring that new material is produced under agreements that allow for endless iPlayer availability.

Make search better

The search function is pretty poor at the moment. Ideally it would be possible to search across actors, episodes, producers, time periods, or even scenes within a show, with the same ease of use as Google.

High Definition

The ISPs might not like it, but why not publish new material in a range of formats depending on bandwidth, including high definition?

Add context

The video themselves are not enough. As a basic next step, the BBC should embed each video in a page that also explains the credits (as per IMDB). Next, they could add trivia, photos, transcripts, editor's comments, links to related material, and space for user-generated comments. This adds enormous value to the material, making the website far more 'sticky' as users navigate around, discovering related material and forming communities around niche content.

Open up worldwide with adverts

I see no reason why the BBC shouldn't make their content available globally, especially if it pays for itself via adverts for users outside the UK. In fact, this could be a massive new revenue source for the BBC, at no expense to UK citizens.