[opendtv] Re: Apple and walled gardens

  • From: dan.grimes@xxxxxxxx
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 09:15:16 -0700


Craig wrote:
"Before Apple created the iPOD and iTunes, the audio CD was the weapon of
choice for the music industry. You could either pay ten bucks or more for a
new CD to get the one song you wanted, or you could become a pirate."

John Shutt responded:
"Gee, time was when there was this thing that was sort of like an album,
only
smaller....

"It was called a "45."  I think the name had something to do with the
larger
sized hole in the middle of the black disk.

"Yes, tongue is firmly planted in cheek.

"Record companies have abandoned the CD single because downloading has all
but eliminated demand for them.

"You make it sound as if Apple invented the concept of buying a single
song."


'Tis true that if we go back far enough, there was an era when Singles
could be bought and sold.  But Craig's comment, I believe, is directed to
the music media generation just before the iPod revolution.

The 45s (named for their angular velocity; they played at 45 revolutions
per minute, although we all know that they were often more interesting at
-45) were popular up to the 70's, but then the 1/4" cassette tape came
along.  They really changed sales from singles based to album based
(remember making mix tapes from everyone else's albums and cassettes?).
Then the CD came along which just nailed the coffin for singles.

So we all knew about and desired a Singles market place in the 80's and
90's (not to be confused with the night clubs).  Obviously, the record
labels did not.  The technical advantages of the CD wooed us into an
album-only market and drove blank cassette sales (for the mix tapes) sky
high.

Apple, in my opinion, with the iPod, was the first to bring the Singles
market back and the success has showed how much of a demand and vacuum
there really was.  Actually, I'm surprised that with such a vacuum, someone
couldn't come up with a way to fill it.

Walled garden or not, Apple, in a way, helped break another walled garden
that the record labels created.  Now the record labels are fighting with
all their might to hold on, even to the point of injustice.

Dan

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