Switchfoot @ Six Flags St. Louis

September 11, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

The Switchfoot concert I attended yesterday was fantastic.
– Maybe it was fantastic because of the weather: I was blown away when it was raining and sunny and a rainbow spread across the park. We are so blessed by this beautiful world. May we treat this precious gift with the dignity that His generosity demands.
– Maybe it was fantastic because of the spirit of everyone in attendance: I loved it when all the young men and women came together in the center of the venue. The sense of spontaneous and uninhibited joy was palpable. I was reminded why I love working with youth so very much. Lord, please bless me with the ability to always teach people that burn brightly on your behalf.
– Maybe it was fantastic because Jon, Tim and the band were really going with where the Spirit led them. They were fantastic – as always. But it was so intensely cool to watch Jon change up the set list just because he felt led to do so. I don’t know if that was planned or not. But it was staggeringly awesome.
– Maybe it was fantastic because I was there with members of my family. While we didn’t have the full complement of my family there, it was wonderful to be with my children and the people that they love. It was amazingly intimate to be with them – and with a few thousand other people.
– Maybe it was fantastic because God’s Spirit was really present with us. In fact, I can guarantee that God’s intimate Spirit was the reason that yesterday was so fantastic. For me, it was one of the most meaningful concerts that I have ever been able to attend. I can’t tell you how many times I cried during the concert. In fact, I’m crying as I write these words.
Some days you tuck away into your memory because they are so very special. This was one such day for me. When I finally see my Savior face to face, I will be tearfully thanking Him for moments like this.
Thank you, Lord Jesus!

A Very Samsung Summer

September 3, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

It’s been a Samsung kind of month here at the castle. First it was the Galaxy Tab. Then we added a Samsung refrigerator. Finally, we ended up buying a second Samsung TV.
Why did we need another TV? Well, our second daughter has started a job in Chanute, Kansas as an assistant basketball coach. She is having a wonderful start to the new school year. But she is obviously moving out of our house and into her own apartment. That is great. We are so proud of her.
But there are two challenges (one practical and one emotional) that this transition brings. The practical challenge is that Dana needed a TV. Cindy and I had talked about putting an LED/LCD screen in our bedroom (to replace a seven-year old tube system). Since there needed to be a +1 purchase somewhere, we chose to give our daughter the older system so we could buy a new system.
The device we chose was a 40″ LED/LCD panel from Samsung. We already had a huge Samsung TV in our main living room. And we have loved that device. So buying another Samsung TV was a natural next step. And this time, I made sure that it would work with the DLNA infrastructure that is now throughout the house.
After getting the TV set up yesterday, I’ve been setting up a robust DLNA complex using Twonky Media. I have used Twonky in the past (with my Western Digital external hard drive). So I just bought and installed the full product on my media PC. Once I set the server up properly, I have been able to stream stuff stored anywhere in the house. And since I’ve stored all my favorite movies in digital form, it is stunningly simple to pull up any of my favorite movies either on the TV, the tablet or my mobile phone.
That took care of the first challenge. The second challenge won’t be as easy to address. Now that Dana is setting up her own apartment, she rightfully wants her own daughter to be with her. I love Dana’s sense of responsibility – and her devotion to Jayden. But it means that Jayden will no longer be living here with Cindy and I. So while we are proud of Dana, I am so terribly saddened that I won’t be seeing Jayden’s beautiful smile or hear her infectious laugh each and every day. I can only imagine the loneliness and loss that Dana felt while she was separated from her daughter for the past two years.
I don’t think that we can solve the second challenge by buying anything or by performing some kind of technical configuration. This one can only be solved with time and with the comforting knowledge that Jayden (and Dana) are starting off on a new and exciting journey – and we will always be along to help and to share in both the burdens and the joy.
-Roo

Spotify @ Home

July 18, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

The social networks have been aglow with the news that Spotify has jumped the pond. It is being hailed as the closest thing to the second coming of the musical messiah. Indeed, some predict that Spotify will finally bring profitability to an otherwise flagging digital music market.

I don’t know about all of that. I sure hope that Spotify will prompt people to listen to and purchase even more music. What the world needs is a little more music and a whole lot less hostility. And from my vantage point, I am glad to see the blokes back east sending us some of their social music love.

This spring, I’ve really focused 0n my streaming music experience. Between Amazon Cloud Drive and Google Music, I have been able to stream all of my music wherever I go. I can access my library at home and at work. I even played a bunch of wedding music as we set up the venue for Meredith’s wedding this past May.

And I’ve done a whole lot of cleanup of my digital library. I’ve gone back and purchased a lot of music that I once had in other formats (including vinyl, eight-track and cassette tapes). While I have chaffed at this since I did pay for the music once before, I have decided that I really want my favorite artists to see even more residuals from the music that they gave to me in my youth.

But that’s a different story. I am writing this post to describe what I’ve seen in the most recent tool to hit the American digital music industry: Spotify.

When all of my friends gushed about being able to stream music to their phones, I just yawned as they waxed positively poetic about Spotify. It sure sounded like it could do everything that I was already doing. So when I finally got my Spotify invite last week, I looked long and hard at the mobile experience and the streaming experience. And I quickly confirmed that Spotify wouldn’t offer me anything new in my streaming experience. So I set Spotify aside for a couple of days.

I finally got back to evaluating Spotify late last night. This time, I focused on the social music experience. And I must admit that the social side of Spotify is positively beautiful. You can scrobble to Last. fm. And you can post to Twitter and Facebook. I can’t wait until there is an interface for Goggle+. But until then, I am happily impressed with the ability to share my thoughts on music that I listen to.

Nevertheless, I am fairly confident that the real lynch pin of Spotify’s long-term success is not its basic capabilities. Rather, its success will be due to its ability to create and leverage music communities. Indeed, its playlist sharing capabilities may well be the real reason that Spotify will flourish her in the United States.

I can easily find dozens of playlists for the kind of music that I listen to. And I can easily find related music that is well worth checking out. For example, I found a great site that has all kinds of Christian music playlists. It is SpotifyforLife. This site is dedicated to the very music that I want to listen to. And it is stunningly simple to start listening to great mixes of favored and favorable music. Finally, I can easily connect with other people that truly love the same kinds of music that I love.

As for the Spotify music tool itself, I am singularly unimpressed by the UI. Don’t get me wrong. The UI is crisp and clean. But with dozens of good players already on the market, I can’t get too excited about the player experience.

So what is my summary assessment?

– Player and desktop experience = Acceptable
– Player and mobile experience = Underwhelming
– Streaming capabilities = Acceptable on the desktop but unacceptable (and expensive) on mobile devices
– Social capabiliies = Way above expectations – especially due to the incredibly active user communities that Spotify has spawned

I heartily recommend the free version of the tool. However, I cannot recommend the premium versions because you can get a better streaming experience for free from other products. But if you have become hooked on the social networking promises inherent in digital music, then you will be thrilled by this British import.

-Roo

Platform Pivot Possibilities

June 11, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

Anyone who has read my musings before already knows that I have loved technology for a very long time. You are also aware that I’ve used many different forms and flavors of technology. The list of operating systems is quite long. On the server side, I’ve used: Univac Exec 8, IBM MVS, IBM VM/ESA, IBM MVS/ESA, IBM z/OS, SunOS, Solaris, Irix, DG-UX, HP-UX, IBM AIX, Windows NT, Win2K(x), Linux and a host of other platforms. On the desktop, I’ve used: CPM, UCSD Pascal, HDOS, MS-DOS, PC-DOS, Windows (many flavors), MacOS (many flavors), Xenix, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Linux (many flavors) and a plethora of experimental OSes.
As you look at this list, you have to be thinking a few things:

Roo is really old,
Roo is fickle,
Roo has been through a lot of tech transitions, and
Roo is really, really old

So why would I recite this list? Am I building a new resume? [No, I’m not.] Am I a preening, arrogant technology elitist? [Yes, I am. But that’s not the reason I recorded the list.] I wrote the list because I’m becoming convinced that it is time for yet another technology pivot.
There are some big trends that are becoming absolutely obvious:

Computing technology is for everyone. So it must necessarily be simple and bullet-proof. Over the past three years, I have deployed more “appliance” devices at home than I have deployed computers. Yes the appliances are computers. But for the average consumer, they are plug and play functionality. This includes: set top boxes, wireless routers, wireless extenders, wireless printers, wireless cameras, wireless phones, wireless monitoring systems, etc.
Everything is becoming mobile. Computers are getting smaller. They are embedded in everything (including my heart). And they are increasingly becoming disconnected from fixed structures (like an office or a home).
We are finally starting to see new user interfaces. Just as the keyboard was displaced by the mouse, the mouse is now being displaced by human touch. Haven’t we had pen computing for almost a decade? Yes, we have. But the iPhone made touch computing ubiquitous. More importantly, touch is not the only new user interface. Speech recognition is becoming ubiquitous as well. I can now talk to my phone and place calls (or write emails). I can now talk to my car (or its GPS) and get driving directions. With speech and touch replacing the hands and fingers that were tethered to a swivel chair, we are accelerating the move towards mobility.
Retail purchasing and provisioning are finally reducing the need to go to the store. It is very possible to sit in your chair at home and order anything for delivery right to your door. I won’t go into the moral impacts of promoting such sedentary lives. But I do think that this change is transforming the way that we live – and the computer systems that we utilize.

These trends (and a few other minor trends) are allowing new competitors to jump into prominent positions. And these changes are putting strains on older competitors.
The big boys do see these trends. Microsoft recognizes these changes. And I think that they are trying to compete in these spaces. But their corporate identity (based on sales pros getting commissions) is becoming outdated. Their corporate ethos allowed them to miss the entire music resurgence that Apple inspired. Sure, Microsoft is now in that business. But not before Apple seized the entire market. The Zune is cool. And the Zune market is feature-complete. But the battle was lost because Microsoft was trying to protect their existing channel model.
The Microsoft phone strategy has been equally anemic. They did indeed recognize the mobility trend. But Windows Mobile was incomplete and clunky. Can WP7 and its successors thrive? Uh, using the number ‘7’ in your name won’t repeat the Windows 7 success. Did Microsoft have a chance? Yes. Can they seize market from both Google and Apple? Sure, but they are taking table scraps from their competitors. And their corporate heritage is holding them back. Android has succeeded because it is repeating Microsoft’s PC success: Google has built an open platform.
Microsoft isn’t the only company at a crossroads. Apple is also at a crossroads. Their model of retail purchase via iTunes and delivery to a desktop device is now under assault. The iTunes infrastructure has always used the desktop as the hub of your music experience. But staying with that model would be like staying with high-end audio equipment. Sure, some audiophiles still have a stylus and all of their other component gear. But component audio was replaced by compact discs and then by PC audio.
The new model is to buy the rights to the music and to store the music remotely. This allows you to access your content anytime and anywhere. You don’t have to be at your desktop. You don’t have to stream from that same desktop. And you don’t have to sync with that desktop. You store your licensed content in the “cloud” and then stream it to wherever you want to play it. For me, this meant that I could stream some cool music to Meredith’s outdoor wedding site while we decorated that site. It also means that I can have my entire library available while I’m at work or in the car or on my bike.
And as of this morning, I’ve now switched all of my podcast content from my desktop (and iTunes) to my mobile device. I’m playing with both Doggcatcher and Google Listen. I haven’t chosen my final podcast catcher, but the choice to push content to my mobile device is now made.
That’s a horribly long setup to the real point of this article: I have finally broken the musical cord that tied me to my desktop computer. And last year, I severed the cord related to web content browsing. For me, this mobility push has been thanks to Google and Android. For others, they are thanking Apple and iOS. But the trend is obvious: cloud-based music is yet another desktop tether that can be severed. And with cloud-based services like file storage (via Google Docs, or Dropbox or any number of other tools), I can snip yet another tether.
Think of a bundle of helium-filled balloons. I’m slowly snipping the strings that hold them down. And I think I may soon be cutting the last of the ties that hold me to my desktop computer. Once I can effectively type on a mobile device, I may be able to come out of the cave where my desktop computer is connected.
The final straw will be whenever I purchase a tablet. And when that happens, I will be free of both Microsoft and Apple. I may end up being dependent upon new vendors (like Google or Amazon). But it is just about time to change things up in my computing ecosystem. I can’t wait for yet another technology transition.
-Roo

A Welcome (And Unexpected) Resolution

June 4, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

Last weekend, I tried to get my Android phone to scrobble the songs that I listened to via Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player. I tried the Last.fm Android client. I loaded the ScrobbleDroid client (which did work with the Android Music app). But I had no success. So I set the problem aside for a few days.
And then things started to work.
I decided to play something at the office. And I noticed that there was a message in the information bar of my phone. The message was simple: my music was being scrobbled to Last.fm (via the Last.fm client). This was great news. But as an analytical geek, I was disappointed because I had no idea which change resulted in the successful outcome I was experiencing.
Unsatisfied with success, I’m now trying to reconstruct my apparent success. The only thing that changed during the time between when it wasn’t working and the time that it began working was that a new version of the Last.fm client was deployed to my phone. [Note: I used passive voice in the last sentence because I didn’t deploy it by choice. I had selected automatic updates for this app. And it got updated. Using active voice, I would say that my phone (and the app market) updated the application.]
Since this is the only change I can identify thus far, I must lean towards this change as being the probable source of my success. But I am not wholly convinced – yet. There is an obvious interaction between Google Music, Last.fm and ScrobbleDroid. And since one of those components did change, then I could just close the book: problem solved. Unfortunately, I haven”t seen the code for any of these components, so I can’t really say which is the root cause for the change in status.
But at this moment, I am going to accept victory as a desirable outcome. I now have one cloud music application that does meet the majority of my listening needs. That system is the Google Music client. I also have one retail music channel that meets my needs. That music channel is Amazon.
On the whole, I have one question: what’s changed? That’s easy. I’ve finally broken the leash that iTunes has on my music library. Now that I am not wholly dependent upon Apple, I can objectively evaluate the iCloud offering whenever it becomes available.
For now, there is peace in the music valley at Chez Roo.
-Roo

Which One Will I Choose?

May 30, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

Over the past several weeks, I’ve spent time and money on assessing a variety of streaming audio solutions. My assessment has considered many factors. But chief among those factors was the mobile experience. When I was at home, I used iTunes. It’s not that iTunes is necessarily the best. Indeed, I’ve used dozens of tools at home. As a general rule, I have always favored things that also provide for metadata management (e.g., MediaMonkey). But iTunes has always been the “gold standard” for both “look and feel” as well as for application compatibility. Everyone is “compatible” with iTunes because it IS the de facto market leader.
But that market may be shifting – at least for me. Over the past few weeks, I’ve assessed two different audio streaming tools: Amazon Cloud Player and Google Music. Both have their pros and cons. Google has much more storage available that is (currently) free of charge. Amazon has a pre-exisiting (and built-in) retail channel that allows for easy (and impulsive) music purchasing. Both have good web clients. And both have good Android clients.
But both suffer from one key problem: I can’t capture and record my listening data on Last.fm. Yes, I can scrobble data from the web client (if I use third-party scripts to do the job). But neither product has any native capability to scrobble from an Android device. There are music players that do scrobble from Android. If you use the Android Music player, you can use tools like ScrobbleDroid. And if you are a fan of Winamp, you can scrobble through the Last.fm Android app. But neither of these players can stream audio from my library. So I was stuck in a quandary. Should I store music on my phone and utilize a player that scrobbles? Or should I use a cloud-based music player and forego the ability to scrobble my music?
The only solution was to either code up my own solution – or use something that already does both. Since I still have another wedding in five weeks,I chose the latter approach. Based upon some searches in Google and Twitter, I decided that I would try out the Audiogalaxy product. Based upon its marketing, the product provides streaming audio (from your home and through their servers) and the product scrobbles via the Last.fm Android app. So I began yet another quest in search of a mythical chalice.
Audiogalaxy is relatively simple to install. The site provides the step-by-step instructions that will get you going. But the basic process is as follows:

Create a free account on the Audiogalaxy site.
Download and install the Audiogalaxy “helper” application.
Point the “helper” application at your music files.
Wait for the helper application to collect metadata and send it to the Audiogalaxy service.
Install the Android app on your phone.
Start listening to your music.

The process is relatively straightforward. And I had no technical issues with the setup. I can now listen to my music library from my phone. And as I listen, my listening habits are recorded at Last.fm.

Unfortunately, Audiogalaxy has the same privacy issues that are present in Amazon’s service and also present in Google’s service: all of your music is streamed through a third-party service. So the architecture of all of these products is an architecture of control, not anonymity.
As I’ve said before, this doesn’t pose a problem for me at this time. After all, my music is positively pedestrian. But what would happen if my musical tastes were more scandalous? Or what would happen if the government decided that rock music was not to be tolerated at all? Then where would I be? I would need to rethink my listening habits. Of course, if something that draconian ever happened, then I would rethink my need to scrobble at all! And for those kinds of over-the-top situations, I might need to assemble a BOB (bug out bag)! 😉
After this exercise, I now have a streaming solution that I can utilize. And I think I know what to look for when it comes to government snooping into my private life. And there is one more option that has to be noted: Apple has not put its offering on the table yet. Maybe that offering will be announced this week. If so, I suspect that my options will grow even broader.
Finally, I really ought to point you to a vey fine comparison of all of these options. David Ruddock (and the folks at AndroidPolice) put together a great comparison of music apps on the Android platform. Check it out for a comprehensive view of all of the Android options.
-Roo

ScrobbleDroid – Closer, But Not Quite There Yet

May 28, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

For many music fans, a key to their listening experience is scrobbling to Last.fm. For those not familiar with the term, it refers to recording the songs that you play. Last.fm has built its unique offering based on the ability to record when and how you listen to music. The process of recording is called scrobbling. For years, whenever you listened to things on iTunes, they could be recorded on Last.fm’s site. Even the Songbird team built scrobling into their basic product offering.
Why is this data important? That’s a great question. People care about this kind of data for a variety of reasons. Some people just want their friends and followers to know more about themselves. Some people like to be considered experts in something (e.g., a band, an album or a community of mutual interests). And some people like to meet and interact with other people that share their interests. Scrobbling collects data that makes all of these things possible. [Note: Scrobbling also lets record companies and bands target their music and their marketing to serious fans.]
Because a large and active community chooses to publicly record their music preferences via scrobbling, most music products have open interfaces and/or direct interfaces to the Last.fm service. Consequently, you can scrobble with almost any PC or Mac-based music player. But this is not the case with mobile phone-based music players.
Because most music players on Android do not provide native support for scrobbling, creative people have built their own scrobbling engines for use on the Android platform. ScrobbleDroid is one such engine. This product was originally a Google Code project. It is now a product that can be obtained from the Android Market. And it is an excellent (and free) tool for scrobbling your listening habits to Last.fm.
Unfortunately, it only works if you use the Android Music application. So it currently supports only music that is stored on your Android phone. But I have high hopes that someday, it will be extended to support both the Google Music platform as well as the Amazon Cloud Drive platform.
In the meantime, if any of you know of a different scrobbling tool that works with streaming music, drop me a note (via comment, email or Twitter).
-Roo

Google Music Is A Real Beta

May 28, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

I have spent a great deal of time this week working with the new Google Music Beta. And I am finally at a point where I can speak with a degree of confidence. What do I think of the new Google service? I think it is a real beta. It has some very rough edges. But it is chock full of promise. It has some unique and innovative features. And there are some things that are simply undone or they are incomplete.
The Good
There are a lot of outstanding features in the Google offering.

The current Google offering provides for storage of up to 20,000 songs. This is outstanding. If this model is carried forward, Google Music will destroy the competition by starving the market. My song base alone is over 12GB. So if I stay with Amazon, I will need to pay for a 20GB allotment. That will mean ~$20 per year. That’s not much. But when it’s compared to a free product, I will always take free – unless free doesn’t meet my minimum feature requirements. [Note: Google may get themselves into some trouble with such a generous storage limit. The government might choose to bring a case against Google for anti-competitive practices. I don’t think that I’d agree with such a claim. But I can see where Amazon and Apple might support someone else bringing such a claim to the federal courts.]
The service itself is stable and the music streams reliably. While I have had some challenges with streaming to my phone, most of my experience has been outstanding.
The user interface on the phone is beautiful. It is a joy to work with the mobile tool. While the “look and feel” of the Amazon tool is eminently functional, it is positively clunky. Google has obviously spent some time making the mobile experience very appealing.

The Bad
Despite all the good features, there are some serious shortcomings in the initial offering.

The tool that loads music onto the service is positively anemic. As noted in my previous post, loading music is an all-or-nothing proposition. To load individual songs (or new sub-folders in a nested hierarchy), you have to reconfigure the music loading tool to point to specific folders. Then you have to find the option in Settings that allows you to manually load music. Then you have to push the Start Now button. Google really needs to spend some time working on this process. You can “stretch” the tool to do your bidding. But ease of use in music loading is a definite weakness.
The view options are really limited. Yes, you can navigate around in the web client. But it is not a beautiful and robust client: it is a functional client. That said, the Android client is beautiful. And it has some of the view options that I like. But it would be nice to have similar options between dissimilar clients. Whether for good or ill, the Amazon client has a common appearance across every platform – including the Apple platform.
There is no music store interface. When I went through the process of loading files, I noted that some of the songs (that I had on my hard drive) came from questionable sources. In my case, I had gotten a copy of “Riders on the Storm” (by the Doors) from the web. I had used the song for a video that I had made for my son a few years ago. But I had never gotten around to buying a copy of the song. So I used Amazon’s service to buy the “Best of…” album from The Doors. Having an integrated service (from any vendor) would be most welcome. I have found that since using the Amazon client, I’ve probably purchased a half dozen albums that I would have otherwise not purchased. This is especially true of impulse purchases. Having an electronic wallet and an “always on” connection has allowed me to experience impulse buying in a whole new light.
There are no tag searching or tag editing options at all. For some folks, ID3 tags are vitally important. And there is no attention to this subject at all.
There is no support for scrobbling music to Last.fm. Yes, there are ways of scrobbling when using the web client. Dan Slaughter has put together some excellent scripts that work with both Google Music and Amazon Cloud Drive. You can find information about these tools here. But it must be noted that there is no support currently available for the mobile (i.e., Android) client.

The Ugly
Finally, there are some ugly issues that really need to be resolved before this product can become a traditional Google beta (i.e., a complete product).
It took me almost a week to get the product to work on my phone. The product would install successfully. And I could see all of the local music, but I couldn’t see anything that was on my cloud drive. At first, I thought that this was a problem with my custom ROM. I use Liberty 2.0. And some apps have trouble with some of the things that jrummy does with the ROM. But that was not the case.
I was about ready to give up on it when I had an unforeseen (and problematic) product upgrade for LauncherPro. My entire LauncherPro config was wiped out and needed to be rebuilt. Once I solved that problem, I went back to the Google Music service. And what to my wondering eyes did appear, but my music collection (but no tiny reindeer). I have to assume that the cleanup of LauncherPro solved my issues – though I have no way of proving it. Either way, the Google Music product now works superbly – though I wish I really knew what caused the trouble in the first place.
But to me, the most troubling aspect of this service (as well as the Amazon service) is the issue of privacy. It is one thing to believe in the safety and security of your own home. But when you store your media on an external service that is not within your home, do you have any degree of privacy? Perhaps you do. Then again, perhaps you don’t.
Part of me is very troubled that I have my musical tastes (and my reading tastes) exposed to any corporation. But it would be even more troubling if that same corporation made my content tastes accessible to the government. Do I have anything to fear currently? No, I really don’t. I try to ensure that all of my content is licensed. And I am pretty darned pedestrian in my reading and musical tastes. In fact, most people call me a prude. But I don’t want the government to know what I think. It’s none of their business. Finally, I broadcast (via blog, tweet and scrobble) all of my media-related activities. So am I concerned that anyone will use this information against me? No, I’m not. At least, I’m not concerned currently.
But what happens if corporations (or the government) change and become more insidious? Or what happens when they try to use my data for their own selfish marketing needs? For me, this possibility is real. And it gives me reason to pause. I don’t want to see the firemen break down my front door and seize my copy of the Bible (or the sonnets of Shakespeare, or the music of The Doors).
Bottom Line
I am impressed with the Google service. I really like their Android client. I hope that they will create a common client interface across all platforms (including Apple’s iOS). And I really hope that they take time and care in developing their EULA. There are some real challenges that must be solved. Nevertheless, the “all you can drink” service is far more compelling than a “pay per gigabyte” service.
But for now, I’m leaning towards the Amazon platform. It is a little more polished and a lot more ubiquitous. Moreover, the Amazon case for privacy is a little more comforting (given Google’s historic willingness to work with the repressive Chinese government). Finally, Amazon’s integration with a working retail channel is far more compelling. But if Google can overcome some (or all) of these hurdles, they do have a chance to win my business.
-Roo

Quick Takes on Music Beta (by Google)

May 22, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

After spending quite a bit of time (and devoting a little coin of the realm) to the Amazon Cloud Drive, I received an email informing me that Google has requested me to participate in the private beta of their new music service. I am more than a little surprised that I was included. But who am I to complain. It’s that much more tech to play with.
But don’t expect this post to be a complete review. This is just a few quick takes from what I’ve seen so far.
Here are my first thoughts (in order of relative importance to me):

Google is offering this service for free. And that means free. I can store up to 20,000 songs free of charge. Period. This simple truth is more than worth the price of admission. And it surely beats the pricing that Amazon is offering. [Note: I do wonder how Google will monetize this. I suspect that it will be context-driven ads. But without a retail engine, where will they drive the traffic to?]
The music selection and loading tools are blunt instruments, at best. You can select everything from iTunes or everything from Windows Media Player. You can also select everything in a directory. This is hardly a precise instrument. You can take a big swing at everything or take no swing at all. The crudity of this method is heart-wrenching. With the Amazon Cloud Drive, you have far more options to selecting and loading your music. But both tools really need to take advantage of metadata that you may already have in your music. I want to do complex Boolean searches on tags and have the selected files loaded.
I really want to control the loading of all files onto the service. I still have a bunch of files that came from unclear origins. Don’t get me wrong, I own all the music that I have on my hard drive. But sometimes I have downloaded songs rather than record them from LP. And after spending years of using tools like MusicBrainz and MP3tagger, I have files with some really oddball ID3 tags.
I would really like more social media tools. Thee is no Last.fm integration. There is no way to comment and tweet those comments to my followers. And there is absolutely no interaction with Facebook. I really want my cloud music service to be more social. After all, music is a community affair. Sharing occurs within fan groups. Even the folks at Myspace knew that. I really think that Google should link this offering to Buzz, Wave, Facebook and Twitter.
Finally, where is the integration with a music retailer. Apple (and iTunes) integrate with the Apple iTunes Music store. And Amazon integrates with their well-established MP3 sales channel. Without a retail engine or agreements with the labels, I am skeptical of the overall success of this offering. I am sure that these things will be added. But their absence in the initial product is rather troubling.

I will write a much more comprehensive review when all of my songs are loaded. Right now, I am +4,000 files of my +6,500 song iTunes library. Let’s see how this car drives when I have all of my clutter on board. But for now, the truck is a good one. It will haul my stuff. I just need to drive it around for a while to see how it handles.
-Roo

Amazon Cloud Drive Musings

April 2, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

After uploading all of my Amazon MP3 purchases to my Amazon Cloud Drive, I used almost all of the 5GB that Amazon provided. I felt a little cheated because I made these purchases through Amazon. Amazon is even making you offers of additional storage for new MP3 purchases. Since I can see the record of all of these “legacy” transactions on my Amazon account, why couldn’t Amazon honor these purchases?
And then it struck me: Amazon is killing many birds with a single stone.

If you purchase and leave your music on Amazon, then Amazon saves a lot of money. They can keep a single copy of the song in their storage farm. And then they just point your Cloud Drive pointer to this original content. If you have a really popular album, then they save multiple instances of storage. And these savings apply to transmission costs as well. Why download 100 or 1,00 or 10,000 copies of a song to thousands of customers? Cut out the storage costs and cut out the download costs. [Note: The transmission costs do occur on the back-end whenever you listen to the music. In fact, each time you listen to the music, you and Amazon are incurring that download.]
Amazon can layer any number of services back into this offering. They can include cover art, and all sorts of other metadata. And they can add things over time.
Amazon is storing the content – so they control it. This may not sound like much. But I suspect that this is a big deal to their content partners. For content that Amazon vends and stores, there is no real issue. But if a customer uploads content and it turns out that the content is obviously unlicensed, then Amazon has rights regarding content embargoes, content filtering and even content elimination. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon does content analysis on behalf of their content partners.

And none of these benefits accrue for older purchased content that would need to be reloaded back to Amazon.
But Amazon is risking very little by not addressing legacy purchases. They have a much bigger issue that they must address head-on: customer perception. Amazon is risking a lot based upon their belief that customers won’t mind having their content stored for them. I’m not certain if this is a good bet or not.
People get positively possessive about things that they have purchased. They want to use it in all sorts of ways. For example, I like to include song snippets in videos that I’ve bult for the kids and their sports teams. I would be upset if I had paid for content and couldn’t use it. In fact, I would consider that a violation of fair use. Not having access to this content in any way that I want (and at any time that I want) may result in some very dissatisfied customers.
For my part, I am still unsure about having “rights” to something without having anything substantial. Thus far, I only have two movies purchased via Amazon Video on Demand. [Note: I’ve also completed my first Amazon MP3 purchase that is stored exclusively on Amazon’s servers.] Yet I have dozens of digital movies on my media server. And I have hundreds of DVD and Blu-Ray discs in a cabinet. And I have thousands of digital music files on my media server. I could certainly buy more “rights” to other content that is stored off-site. But it just doesn’t seem the same to me. Proximity equals control and control equals confidence.
As I think about it, I like the Amazon Kindle model a little bit better. I do have the rights to books I’ve ordered. And I can view them anywhere – as long as I download them first. [Note: I do wonder why Amazon isn’t streaming book content as well as music content as it is less bandwidth intensive.] Either way, I feel very connected to the Kindle content – wherever it is. I think that this is because I have something to touch – i.e., the Kindle itself.
But I’m sure that Amazon customer studies have been through all of this. I am sure that they have recent data that suggests that younger customers are more comfortable with less concrete content. It’s just old farts like me that want to have something that is a little more tangible.
In a few years, all of this will be moot. Content will be stored in the cloud. And you won’t have direct and personal access to it – except via a technology broker (like Amazon). And that situation has the little “Lost in Space” robot (that is inside my head) screaming “Danger, Will Robinson.”
I am also reminded of the Doctor Who episode entitled “The Long Game.” In this episode, people have to pay for “access” to important information. The more you pay, the more “access” you receive. Surely this is not the future of computing. I certainly hope not.
-Roo

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