Source Speaks to Apple's Motivation Behind Lala Acquisition

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Intelman on 07 Dec 2009 - 15:36
I'd rather have the Zune Pass so I can have an "unlimited amount" of music on my portable device.

#2Shadrack on 07 Dec 2009 - 15:51
Apple shouldn't need to buy into a streaming music service, unless it is just to gather up all the contract deals with the RIAA and stuff.

They should be offering something to compete with "Zune Pass."


LOL.

 

[C8XY]

Streaming is the next logical step, but hopefully we can get an iTunes without the bloat

 

[!¡ V ¡!]

This is all leading to core apps being shifted to cloud computing, pretty obvious. Small steps now then transit the other core apps as well.

No requirement for larger SDD HD when you can get by with a 32-128GB HDD while the rest of your content is hosted on ".mac"


My calculated guess this service will be repackaged with ".mac" for a full access version and iTunes X for limited access to get the end user comfortable with usage and acceptance.


answer to limit local storage on the iPhone/iPT and allow users to access additional content while the local storage becomes a buffer of a sort.

 

[!¡ V ¡!]

Streaming is the next logical step, but hopefully we can get an iTunes without the bloat

Tell me about it, I do not even use the included social sites in iTunes. I hope gets smart and allows the end-user to remove these extra services during installation or an option to just remove them. Make it a plugin based system incorporated within iTunes.

 

[bastard]

Streaming

I predict the following.

Apple will allow users to listen to entire songs (versus the 30 second preview) either gratuitously, a 10 cent down payment, or a monthly fee. This might also increase the sale of each song; the 30 second previews are really unconvincing at times. I think Apple might even stream tv shows and movies, but at a high price. They might stream a tv show for 30-50 cents a pop, or/and charge half price for the season pass of the show. I'm guessing that you no longer will have to download rented movies. The price will remain the same, but the waiting time will be much less.

I hope Apple will allow people to preview entire songs without charging a dime. This will steer more traffic towards iTunes, and possibly increase sales. I know I would buy more songs if I could listen to its entirety. I think apple will stream movies and tv shows for a price, which I'd be perfectly happy spending. Movie streaming will continue to be called "rent", while TV shows will be called "live" or something of that sort.

However Apple decides to do it, they'll innovate streaming as we know it. ($3.00 - $5.00 NFL game streaming to coincide with actual broadcast? Could be nice).

 

[dicklacara]

Streaming is only useful if you have an internet connection, and the majority of places still dont have public wlan access.

Now I would get excited about this if apple was rolling out world wide wlan In the mean time I will restrict streaming to FM Broadcasters.

This is so not true! You can stream audio and video quite effectively over 3G, even Edge.

For example, a couple of months ago I was at my grandson's soccer practice in the middle of a park. I was able to stream AV from my mobileme servers and my home computer (Comcast Cable)-- neither of which are designed for streaming.

I streamed highlights of several prior soccer games and a video of a friend singing the National Anthem at a Red Sox Blue Jays game.

http://web.me.com/dicklacara/Sheena/Media/Sheena%20Fenway.m4v


I have written an iPhone app that streams any videos I have on my mobileme site that bypasses the Safari step.

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[Mattie Num Nums]

I love Lala I hope they bought them to make it better not destroy them.

 

[dicklacara]

Marlowe needs to work on her follow-through!

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[LorenzG]

I have a feeling that iTunes is getting better and better in the future Godd for us musicians! http://www.egitarrist.de

 

[powers74]

touché

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I'm sure she'll nail it!

 

[wizard]

Idon't buy the streaming model at all.

There are so many problems with it that I can't see it being successful.

1. There isn't enough band width for each user to have his own customized stream of music. In this case the assumption is that most streaming will happen over 3G and 4G networks. By the way this isn't an AT&T thing but rather a technical issue.
2. Streaming implies beign willing to pay the rather stiff data rates we currently have just to listen to music.
3. The largest part of the market doesn't have the resources to pay for 3G connection. That is young teenagers.
4. Sometimes the best places for your listneing pleasure don't come with good reception.

I could be wrong though and Apple could go whole hog into music streaming and totally plug up the public data networks. I coul see Apple putting such talent to work offering up other sorts of streamed data services for example financial.

Dave

 

[doctoree]

Sarcasm/

All the upcoming streaming and magazine/ebook bloat has one good
side aspect: It will force Apple to rewrite iTunes into Cocoa 64bit so iTunes can handle the 5-6 GB of Ram it will need.

Sarcasm/
Doc

 

[Bregalad]

You don't buy small companies for the people

The net result of most acquisitions is a rapid departure of most of the staff. This is particularly true when a large company absorbs a small one. Apple did not buy Lala for the people.

I think the goal was to capture the technology and prevent the inventors of that technology from suing them in the future. A few key people were probably made offers they couldn't refuse so they wouldn't jump ship right away.

 

[dicklacara]

There are so many problems with it that I can't see it being successful.

1. There isn't enough band width for each user to have his own customized stream of music. In this case the assumption is that most streaming will happen over 3G and 4G networks. By the way this isn't an AT&T thing but rather a technical issue.
2. Streaming implies beign willing to pay the rather stiff data rates we currently have just to listen to music.
3. The largest part of the market doesn't have the resources to pay for 3G connection. That is young teenagers.
4. Sometimes the best places for your listneing pleasure don't come with good reception.

I could be wrong though and Apple could go whole hog into music streaming and totally plug up the public data networks. I coul see Apple putting such talent to work offering up other sorts of streamed data services for example financial.

Dave

What you say is mostly true, today...

But consider what is happening in technology in the near future:

1) more available WiFi hotspots-- entire cities in some cases
2) WiFi Sharing
3) newly available band spectra with potential for much greater speed & bandwidth
4) more intelligent and efficient streaming software & streamed-data-packaging.
5) more intelligent centralized serving of streamed data-- 1 copy/stream served to multiple users ala Lala.
6) Intelligent relay stations with caching capabilities for high-demand streams (Movies, TV Shows, etc)
7) more comprehensive last-mile transmission [to the home or enterprise]-- fiber optics, powerline, etc.
8) Faster cell radios-- LTE, etc.

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[numediaman]

What you say is mostly true, today...

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I agree. The key is that much of what we call one medium (radio, for instance) will soon be essentially another (streamed content). Before I upgraded to the GS, my old original iPhone could stream radio in the car using Edge (I haven't tried it on 3G yet because technically I'm not supposed to get my new phone until Christmas!).

By the way, I used to live in Antioch -- but that was a long time ago -- Mountain Mike's still there? (Edit: oops, just realized there are now a million "Mountain Mike's out there -- man, I'm getting old.)

 

[dicklacara]

The net result of most acquisitions is a rapid departure of most of the staff. This is particularly true when a large company absorbs a small one. Apple did not buy Lala for the people.

I think the goal was to capture the technology and prevent the inventors of that technology from suing them in the future. A few key people were probably made offers they couldn't refuse so they wouldn't jump ship right away.

Yea, but Apple is different than most large companies. Many people aspire to work for Apple.

Some of Apple's recent acquisitions tend to support this. e.g. FingerWorks, Palo Alto Semi come to mind.

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[8CoreWhore]

where's the streaming iPorn?

 

[RazHyena]

Wirelessly posted (SAMSUNG-SGH-A821/1.0 SHP/VPP/R5 NetFront/3.4 SMM-MMS/1.2.0 profile/MIDP-2.0 configuration/CLDC-1.1)

Bring on streaming itunes to my iphone...

Yeah, as well as the dead iPhone batteries.

 

[Goona]

That's weird, I figured they bought it to stop LaLa from releasing their iPhone app which would be much more competitive to iTunes than, say... Pandora, even Rhapsody as there is a useful free component to LaLa that is better than either aforementioned.

But hey, maybe something more interesting will happen.

Seeing how it was Lala who ran to Apple, you conclusion is off base.

 

[Bregalad]

Yea, but Apple is different than most large companies. Many people aspire to work for Apple.

Some of Apple's recent acquisitions tend to support this. e.g. FingerWorks, Palo Alto Semi come to mind.

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Apple is certainly a place many aspire to work, but also a place many do not wish to work because it's a demanding employer. I know two current Apple employees and both are single. I know close to a dozen ex-Apple employees, most the result of acquisitions. Only two were married when they worked there and neither had children.

I don't know anyone with a family who would work for Apple, EA or Microsoft.

 

[pooryou]

I don't really see anything on a technological level Lala is doing that Apple couldn't easily do already if they wanted.

 

[djchuckc27]

can we get a good electronic station in america please?

 

[GulGnu]

Streaming generally is choppy and sucks. To make streaming prime-time there needs to be permission to cache considerably more time than is currently allowed on most systems.

Rocketman

Lots of misconceptions in this thread. Speaking as a Spotify Premium user:

1) The Steaming quality is near flawless on all internet connections I have tried. (320 kbit/s using the Ogg Vorbis q9 codec)

2) I use Spotify on my iPod Touch. Note: SPOTIFY WILL DOWNLOAD ALL YOUR PLAYLISTS TO YOUR IPOD, NO INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED FOR PLAYBACK. The only limiting factor is the storage space on your iPod / iPhone.

Of course, if you have an iPhone / WiFi available, you can stream to your mobile device as well. Just make sure you have an unlimited data plan for your iPhone first.

Sorry about the BOLD, but that is critical. Essentially, you will have the same relationship to your music as you would using a normal iPod library on the go, with streaming as an additional option.

After trying streaming with Spotify for a while, I have no doubt in my mind that it is the future. Good move by Apple to get on the train now, or they would have been at risk of getting passed by.

"People want to own their music" was a transitional stage while people were weaned of their CD collections, not a permanent endpoint.

 

[Lara F]

And this is the time of year the advantage of streaming services is even more apparent. With Spotify I now have access to just about every major Christmas album released - stuff I'd never pay for individually just for December. I can choose a full album or search for a classic song and pick the version I prefer. Pretty sweet.

It's exactly what I want when I want - even Pandora or Slacker can't give that flexibility. Apple is wise to prepare for when it finally becomes available in North America.

 

[twoodcc]

now this could get very interesting. i hope that they are looking to use their services, compared to just their talent on other things