![Best Xmas Gifts For Musicians [Poll] Get On Bits](http://img.virtualmusic.tv/thumbs/kodak-zi8-mini.png)
Best Xmas Gifts For Musicians [Poll] Get On Bits
Anyone who’s already finished their Xmas shopping is an overachiever! Okay so I obviously “planned” to write this post a little earlier. I even planned to write it last year. ;) Giving gifts can be really hard, but if you really know someone, it’s much easier. Everyone is different. POLL. Extra: Get it on tape—not literally. Get it on bits.
Lala Shutdown: Twitter Top 20
Apple caused a Twitter storm today with the abrupt announcement that their newly acquired cloud-based music service “Lala is shutting down.” I won’t speculate today on what this may mean for the future of iTunes and the music industry. Instead, here’s our top ten reactions to the news—reader discretion is advised.
iTunes Is The 7-Eleven of Media
Mac computers rock, but I’m no apple addict. When I talk on my iPhone 3G I feel like my head is melting, and even though iTunes launches every time I sync, I’ve never purchased music on iTunes. (I have downloaded apps.) The bottom line of this microwavable disclaimer is that I’m not your average music consumer. Apple continues to create a major dependence on iTunes through their mobile products, and I don’t think that anything is going to “kill” iTunes without a war. iTunes is the 7-Eleven of media—
Emotional Attachment To Music
Terry McBride—CEO of Nettwerk—talks here about imagination. He argues that with music, context trumps content because music creates emotional bookmarks in our mind. Simply, the song is an emotion. These emotional bookmarks are significant because they enable us to travel backwards in our memories to when we experienced the music. Consumers are in control of the music industry, and access rules.
2009 Music Website Heat Map
Based on estimated traffic data from compete.com, this visualization compares November 2009 website visits for 27 popular, legal, music stream-or-download destinations. The heat map is scaled—larger map areas represent higher website traffic. Green indicates positive growth in 2009. Red indicates negative growth in 2009. Hold your mouse over each section for stats on each site.
Lala, Apple, Mobile Music, and Cloud-Based Streaming
Tweets about Apple acquiring Lala have been flooding Twitter for 3+ days now. A number of sources have provided news and analysis on the acquisition. Personally I think Apple aims to move iTunes to the web in an effort to control mobile cloud-based music streaming via iPhones and iPods. Mobility is paramount, and I think that buying Lala was a sound move for Apple.
