Posted by Kiel on Nov 28, 2007
Before I had bought an iPod and even before I had broadband, I bought music from the iTunes Music Store (now known just as “iTunes Store”). I was thrilled! For once I didn’t have to go to the music store and pay an overpriced amount for an entire album when all I really wanted was a single! But there’s a darkside to the iTunes Store, DRM.
Now before you attack me, I don’t share my music. I’m pretty protective of that. But when I pay for music, I want to OWN my music, not just have a license to listen to it… which is essentially what DRM does. And with iTunes, they’re making the blatant assumption that they will always be your digitial music player and provider. So when you buy tracks through iTunes, you can only listen to them through iTunes.
Sites like AllofMp3.com popped up which sold DRM-free tracks and showed the recording industry that people were willing to pay for music as long as they didn’t have restrictions placed on them, which is why I’m excited to see a service such as Amazon’s MP3 download service.
To find the Amazon MP3 download service, locate the part of the menu that says “Digital Downloads” and then select “MP3 Downloads.” That’s it! You now have access to a catalog of music that is DRM-free, you get the MP3 file and it imports it into your favorite music player (even iTunes). You do have to download a small piece of software, a download manager, but it’s small and unobtrusive.
What’s the downside to this service? Well, unfortunately the selection isn’t nearly as good as iTunes. But as more record labels allow DRM-free music to be sold, the more music you’ll see show up on this service. I personally only downloaded two songs out of the possible five that I wanted because they didn’t have the artists I was looking for.
But if you’re looking for an alternative to iTunes, Amazon.com’s service is definitely worth a look. If you have an MP3 player (not an iPod) and listen to a ton of music, Rhapsody and Napster is a good alternative with unlimited music for your compatible device starting at $9.99. Of course once you cancel your subcription, you lose all your downloaded music.
Friendly Reminder:You should back-up songs that you download from services such as iTunes and Amazon.com, they aren’t responsible if you lose your files! Seriously, if you lost a CD, would you go back to the record store and ask them to give you another one? Nope, that’s what I thought! 
Tags: Amazon.com, download, DRM, Music, Napster, Rhapsody
Posted by Kiel on Nov 23, 2007
I often heard of the madness of Black Friday, but never believed it. Well, I finally experienced it today. I was up at 5:30 AM for no reason really, I probably got too cold. So I decided, “hey, I’ll go to Target since they open at 6 AM!” I have to tell you, it was crazy. A parking lot that is normally empty at 6 AM looked like it was 6 PM… it was pretty full! And the entrance to the store? People were streaming in like ants, grabbing carts (I can still hear the “clacks” as people separate the carts and run off into sales nirvana.)
It was mostly women… and they were grabbing all the DVDs on sale. Perhaps the busiest part of the store was the electronics as people were aiming to get whatever was on sale: DVD/TV combos, digital cameras, gaming systems, DVDs, if it was on sale, people were clamoring for it.
As for me? Well, I bought a couple of the DVDs that were on sale, but mostly went to buy some food. Now I will probably pop in one of those movies and rest for a while… dreaming of my first Black Friday experience. I hope my future wife doesn’t partake in this madness… I don’t want her to be one of those women that are normal 364 days out of the year and then goes crazy the day after Thanksgiving! Ha ha! Well, that’s all for now!
Tags: Black Friday, Christmas, crazy, shopping, Target
Posted by Kiel on Nov 9, 2007
The video store, you love it and you hate it. You love it because many times they have a good selection of movies, you hate it because many times those movies are out-of-stock. I have fond memories as a child of going to the local supermarket every Saturday night to pick out a couple movies and an occasional video game, it was such a great treat for us as kids. I liked it so much that when I worked for that supermarket many years later, I spent time working in the video department.
Unfortunately, the supermarket decided to close its video departments because of a waning interest and stiff competition from Blockbuster. In fact, my area used to have three video stores: Blockbuster, Video Vault of Nora, and the the supermarket’s video department. First the supermarket’s video department closed, then Video Vault decided to close their doors, and finally Blockbuster went out of business due to an organizational restructuring. Isn’t that nice? Blockbuster comes into the neighborhood, wipes out the competition, and then ends up leaving the neighborhood!
I say that to say this, Blockbuster is dead. In the days of video-on-demand, TiVo, Netflix, and the internet, we will not have a need for a brick-and-mortar video store. Here’s what we’re doing: the movie company digitally films the movie, burns that digital file to a disc, the discs are shipped to the store (in limited quantity), and we are forced to fight off the others for the lastest release.
Think about how we are able to do things with technology. The studios edit the films on computers, convert the file to a playable format (like Mp4 for iTunes) and can distribute it over the internet! You can see this at work in the iTunes Store. You can download a movie and watch it on your computer. Or, if you have Apple TV, you can stream the movie wirelessly from your computer to Apple TV.
This is just one application of how we deliver content. One of the most popular methods right now is pay-per-view or video on-demand. The cable/satellite company can take one or more copies of that movie file and distribute it to hundreds and thousands of customers at the same time. That’s right, no having to go out to the video store to find that the movie you want is out! You can order the movie in your underwear!
We’ve even seen DVD rental machines such as Redbox where you can rent a copy of a DVD for $1 a night using your credit or debit card. Redbox does have a few problems, it only features new releases, and there are only X amount of copies per machine. Second, you have to wait in line just to return a DVD if someone is using the machine. Third, some people will take FOREVER to pick their movie! Redbox is a good solution if you know what you want and are quick to get in and out.
So why is Blockbuster going to die? Stiff competition from these various avenues (video on-demand, Redbox, iTunes, Netflix) is taking away from Blockbuster’s business. If they stay around, they will be a ghost of their former glory. As customers become more technologically adept, we will see more demand for digital content delivered straight to our homes.
And what’s so bad about that? I can log on to the internet and watch movie trailers before ordering my movie! What can I do at a video store? Read the back of a box? Come on! The revolution is here and you’re seeing right before your eyes, with new players in the market, the video store as we know it is dead. So enjoy your local video store while you can because chances are they won’t be as widely available in 10 to 20 years.
Tags: blockbuster, entertainment, movies, netflix, rentals, video