Scotch Tech - Put the Needle on the Record

I wonder how many under 30 have ever performed the action described in the title of this post?  I am willing to bet those under 20 think I’m talking about trying to break a Skateboarding ‘record’ while getting an inoculation .  When was the last time you dropped a needle on a record?

Last millennium, shortly before Y2K, the telecommunications company QWest ran a national TV Spot that I remember vividly: Check out their 30-second ad.  In the end, the receptionist states “all rooms have every movie ever made in any language anytime, day or night.”  Working for an internet start-up based on broadband delivery of media content, this spoke worlds to me.  The problem with the commercial, and my employer, was broadband itself.  How many of you knew what that was back in 1999 let alone had access to it?

But the sentiment stuck with me from the very first time I saw the ad.  Why shouldn’t the libraries of every music label, every motion picture studio and every publisher be put on-line for everyone to access at any time for a reasonable fee?

I used a VCR for many, many years, but didn’t buy my first DVD player until 2002.  I can play Blu-Ray DVDs on my Playstation 3 I got in 2007.  Five years is a very short period of time for a physical medium to exist.  I used to have a vast library of physical tapes - most proudly, the entire James Bond series.  When I bought the DVD player, I considered upgrading all the movies, but pushed it off due to the cost.  Now I still toy with purchasing them on Blu-Ray, but I keep asking myself, “Why?”

Today I can watch almost any movie I want via any of the numerous on-line methods.  All of the major “cable” companies have on-demand - DirecTV, Verizon FIOS & Comcast which all service Scotch Plains/Fanwood have great On Demand offerings.  Subscription services such as NetFlix, Hulu, Amazon & even YouTube offer major studio motion pictures free, per showing and by monthly subscription.

New televisions have built-in access to some of these services; the Wii, XBox and Playstation have methods of watching them; dedicated devices such as the Roku Box, Google TV and Apple TV allow for streaming rental or purchase of movies as well.  The question is - why “buy” a specific movie when accessing it on-line will get it to you in the proper format at the time you wish to watch it?  The Blu-Ray version doesn’t work on your iPad and the iPad version won’t work on your plasma monitor.  Why buy when you can just watch it when you want it how you want on the device you want?

The biggest problem facing consumers right now is industry fragmentation.  My TV monitor gets Amazon On Demand; my satellite receiver DirecTV On Demand; my PS3 NetFlix.  When I’m looking for a specific movie sometimes I have to search a little harder than I want.  I would still like everything to be in one place.  Hulu works great on my PC, but they restrict access from a gaming console to those who pay $8/month for Hulu Plus.  However the paid service gains you access to every episode of current season TV shows, plus many of prior seasons and shows long off the air - 5 seasons each of Quantum Leap and The A-Team for example.

NetFlix also has many television shows & movies available via streaming - from your TV, set top box, gaming console, tablet & smart phone - however I have found their available stock rotates - a great movie may be here today and gone tomorrow by some unfathomable studio contract.  Will it come back?  Who knows.  They have some TV shows, but miss others.  NetFlix streaming will only run you $8/month.  Unfortunately, paying for both NetFlix and Hulu Plus might be necessary to get the content you truly want - on top of your cable bill of up to $100/month you already pay.

What about music?  Digital music has truly only been with us since the iTunes store opened in 2001.  Prior to that, ripping music and accessing it on your computer was cumbersome at best.  Today buying DRM-free MP3s that can be played on any portable device, computer and even car head units can be acquired from an almost countless number of sources.  The two big players are Apple’s iTunes and Amazon’s MP3 Store.  I’ve been using both since they were introduced and all of my music media is now electronic - stored on my hard drive, an iPod and a Creative MP3 Player.  I swapped out the head unit in my wife’s car to one that supports the direct connection to an iPod - which was sweet at first, but already so last year.

Now when we drive, we don’t listen to our own music, we listen to Pandora on our Android phones (also available for iPhone) with a headphone plug direct into the head unit.  Pandora is a streaming music service that plays the ‘type’ of music you already like.  After creating an account, you tell it an artist or song or two that you like.  From there, using what they call Music DNA, they determine other songs and artists that you probably also like.  It’s incredible.  When we bought our car, it came with 6 months free XM Radio.  Before the trial period had completed, we were using Pandora and enjoying the mix of music played on our own custom radio station versus XM or any terrestrial station was offering us.

There are competitors to Pandora coming to market and already there, especially in Europe.  Once they can figure out royalty payments and come to terms with the studios, I am sure more offerings will be available.  Pandora is free for most users, but plays a 30-second ad every half-hour or so, a small price to pay for your own custom mix channel.

So I pose the question again:  Why buy DVD: a Blu Ray for the home theater or regular one for the kids in the minivan?  Why buy music when Pandora gives you what you want when you want it?  As of this writing, you still can’t select a specific song or album to listen to in its entirety, but shouldn’t we?  I long for the day when I can pay a flat monthly fee to access all types of media, in any format, on any device at any time without any restriction!  Until the studios and technology enablers can come to terms with payment plans however, the consumer will be left in a fragmented state of media - some here, some there, some nowhere to be found.  Some day that QWest commercial will be our reality...