Where I'm At

7:34 pm - Fri, Feb 5, 2010

1 note

On The Current State Of Digital Media.

Here I sit, Friday night, and I am at Starbucks listening to the latest offering from Souther Rap Star - ‘Lil’ Wayne’. “Weezy” decided to shake up the “rap game” by releasing a Rock album. Now, it’s pretty good. I mean, I’m happy to listen to it, and I have - multiple times. It won’t win a Grammy or even have a chance at being nominated, but it entertains me, and that’s what counts. That’s what music is.

As I’m sure you’ve heard and seen, there is a lot of frustration regarding the iPad [Apple], the Kindle [Amazon], and the Publishers of the eBooks many of you read. If you don’t here is the lowdown (skip if you know what’s up) :

THE LOWDOWN: Basically Apple isn’t going to have a fixed price on the eBooks offered in it’s digital bookstore. This is completely contrary to Amazon (The #1 in eBook distributors) who restricts publishers to a sliding price chart which only allows publishers to sell at a maximum of 9.99 for a New Release / Bestseller. Long story short, the publishers are essentially threatening to leave Amazon if they don’t follow suit with Apple. Amazon, and Kindle users are in uproar.

So, with that in mind, and with the Lil’ Wayne metaphor let’s sit at a distance and evaluate this. Not from an eBook standpoint. Not from a music standpoint. After the jump let’s look a digital media as a whole.

The NOW.

I can buy a CD, DVD, BluRay, Book, and Game off the shelf. Or I can buy an album, a movie (HD or SD), and eBook, and a game online and have it downloaded in no time ready to view. As of right now, in most cases it is cheaper to buy online. An album is 9.99, a movie is up to 19.99, and an eBook is 9.99 (Games vary too much and for the purposes of this article games are irrelevant). Physical media is often more money, but we still buy it. We haven’t switched over to digital 100% yet. Why? Because it isn’t perfect. To me the price isn’t a concern. As long as I am not paying more to purchase online then I will continue to do so. What will it take to perfect the digital media store? A total synchronization.

The SYNC.

Today, we are in the process of a large shift. Online Social Media is on the rise, Offline communication is on a decline. Digital media is part of a similar shift. Digital media sales are on the rise, and physical media is slowing (slowly but surely) As new products and services are created, announced, and released we are becoming more and more integrated into a total online presence, and synchronization is what will help complete the transition. If I buy a book today, and read it tonight, I can give it to my friend tomorrow, and he can pay it forward with my permission, or give it back to me. I can do the same with a DVD, or a music album. Now in a practical sense, while my friends have my property I cannot use it (Ignore the CD/DVD ripping loophole for the purpose of this article). So why not make digital media the same? Why not sell me an eBook (for the same price as the paperback if you’d like) and when I am done with it, I can forfeit my rights to it and ‘gift’ it to a friend, or I can ‘lend’ it to them for as long as they take to read it, and if I need it back, I can ‘take’ the rights back and I will have my eBook back. The same could apply to a movie. With music, I think Microsoft had it right with the music sharing. Lend your rights to an album or a song to a friend, and if they like it after 3 listens they can buy it, alternately if they ‘like’ it you can ‘gift’ it and therefore forfeit your rights. This way, digital and physical would practically be in sync.

The Sum of All Media.

If we think about rap music, and how it is about the rhythm, the heavy bass, and the rapping then “The Rebirth” by Lil’ Wayne is a brutal rap album. If we think about rock music, and how it is about the structure of song, the band uniting their instruments to create the rhythm, and the dynamic vocals that overlay it all, then Lil’ Wayne still hasn’t really got it. It’s when we listen to it as ‘music’. No genre, no stereotypes. Just as a source of entertainment, that I realize that “Yes, this entertained me therefore it did it’s job”

With digital media we just need to sit back and realize that things are changing, and in order to adapt we need to be open to new ideas, and see things for the big picture. I don’t care whether I have to run to the video store or I can download it online, or if there is any price difference, but I want to be sure that regardless I am getting the same experience regardless of the format I choose.