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About once a week, Michael writes on his companies, technology, his Broadway debut, lawsuits ... basically whatever he feels like. His aptly named "Michael's Minute" started as a forum posting back in the MP3.com days and now reaches an audience of several hundred thousand. And he really writes them all himself! Sign up here for the Michael's Minute.
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August 19th, 2010 Several of the technology giants companies have basic storage services but when it comes to music they are useful only for the sharing which they all allow and not as an interactive music locker. Simply displaying filenames in an alphabetical list does not make for a practical or usable music experience.
“...when it comes to music they are useful only for the sharing which they all allow...”
Music fans need to browse and search by artist, album and song title, not just filename. They want to group music in playlists. They want to sync with iTunes. They expect cover art and "sounds like" music searching which will help them find music for any mood. And they'll want to play their music back from any browser, smart phone, video device and internet radio. Here's a chart looking at a couple music locker companies and comparing them with file storage service from Apple, Google and Microsoft.
To view full-sized click here.
Music is a critically important part of your digital life and there's no question the big tech companies will eventually enter the music locker competition. Their crude alphabetical basic storage services are unusable for music. Even as a backup service they are impractical because they require loading files in one by one and retrieving them individually when software from companies like MP3tunes can load your entire library onto your new computer with a single click. Music requires a different interface so you can navigate and play your music on many devices. While I expect the big companies to slowly add these features and each time they do the press will herald it as a major accomplishment, it will be a long time before they can match dedicated music services.
--MR
michael@michaelrobertson.com
p.s. One irony is that while MP3tunes has been sued for copyright infringement by EMI Records for its music locker service, there is no sharing between users unlike storage services from Apple and others. Instead of suing MP3tunes they should be holding it out as a model for others to follow.
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