Rhapsody mp3 store review

The sites of digital music days of yore just keep coming back to life. This week Rhapsody announced the opening of their mp3 store component of their site. Touting the compatibility of the downloads with iTunes and the iPod, we had to check it out. If you want to check it out too, it's best to do it now as Rhapsody is offering a $10 credit (has to be used by midnight on the 4th) to try it. And if you do that, you'll discover the shortcomings of the site. Our full video review is below, but the gist of it is, their download manager software to automatically place the songs into iTunes is PC only, and the user interface really brings nothing new to the table. Still, with their $10 credit promotion (and supporting TV ads) it looks like they've gotten one part of the iTunes equation right:

LOST book club on iTunes: weak corporate tie-in or great idea?

Visiting the iTunes store today brings a new link (see above) to the Lost Book Club. What's that? It's a collection of books referenced, seen, or quoted in ABC's drama Lost. The executive producers aren't promising any great show-related revelations will come from reading (technically listening to) the books, but it is an interesting new way to build a community. Lost fans are a pretty devout group facing a long drought until the next season kicks off. This could be a great way to help them feel connected during the downtime, and it's certainly a more worthwhile endeavor than playing the awful LOST game for the iPod.

The cynic in me wonders though, why is it an ABC show (owned by Disney, who happens to have a single largest shareholder with the last name Jobs) that's trying this audiobook tie-in. It's a little strange (well my library friends will be up in arms) that while the characters in the show actually read the books, this tie-in encourages you to skip all that annoying reading and simply listen instead.

The easygoing side of me says it's no big deal, and it's just a nice way to promote a product (actually the books and the show). The old-man side of me wonders though, couldn't we come back from the brink of civilization a teensy bit by actually reading these books instead?

Nah.. go back to bed, old man.

The iTunes music store could have some competition, if only...

Business is hard. The digital music business is really hard. Or is it? On paper at least, you need to create an easy user interface, have a wide selection, and offer unique features. There's one other part of the equation everyone seems to keep forgetting though: advertising.

Amazon has a decent mp3 store. It has a fine selection of tracks, and the best way to get your music into your iTunes library without using the iTunes music store. So why then, isn't it more popular? No one knows/remembers it exists! Other than the promotion with Pepsi, (which didn't have the same ad support as the previous Pepsi deal with Apple) have you ever seen an ad for the service?

Now Amazon is expanding to the UK, where we're told most digital downloads are in a protected Windows Media format. What a great opportunity for Amazon to expand their marketshare, but if the y make the same mistake as in the U.S., they will be a very distant second place at best.

The only digital music competitor to sink any real money into advertising was the failed buy.com music store. Maybe the failure of Buy caused everyone else to be gun shy. The problem with Buy was never the advertising though, it was a clunky store with a small selection, of wildly varying price points. Any company serious about taking on Apple will have to match ad for ad with them just to make any impact. Think about all those Coldplay commercials from Apple, who easily has the #1 position. There's no magic wand to make your music store competitive with Apple. People need to know the store exists, and then be reminded of that at every turn. It's a simple business principle

Root Access now on iTunes

If you've enjoyed Root Access on the channel, or on the shows page, you can now get it (for free of course) directly from the iTunes store. We'd appreciate it if you'd take a moment to subscribe, or leave your thoughts through the iTunes review system.

Here you go!

5 Billion songs sounds like a lot, but...

Apple announced this week they have now sold over 5 Billion songs. That is a huge number, and a huge feat in a space that was practically non-existent before the iTunes store launched.

With that said, some people, especially stock holders, might want to get out the calculators for a minute, and consider the ramifications of a rental or subscription service instead.

For this discussion, let's assume Apple's cut of rented music vs. purchase would be roughly the same. And we'll assume all those 5 billion tracks were purchased individually, meaning the sales brought in roughly $ 5 billion.

Today there are roughly 175 million iPods and iPhones sold. Let's say 150 million are still in use. Now let's assume 40% of those iPod/iPhone owners would be interested in a $15/mo rental program. $15/mo x 90 million would give Apple revenue of $1.25 billion per month.

There are a lot of unknowns here, so let's take a look at far more conservative numbers. Perhaps as few as 5%, or 7.5 million ipods/users would subscribe to the service. That would still mean more than $112 million in revenue each month, or $1.34billion per year. It would take less than four years to match the per song revenue.

This isn't meant to suggest Apple should abandon per track pricing, but rather they should offer a rental system as well. Traditionally Apple has been set in creating hardware or software, then telling the consumer why they needed it. Why not, just this once, give the consumer a choice. A choice that could ultimately lead to far higher revenue.