Top 8 Things Music, television, film and Consumer Electronics Industries must do
The music, television, film and consumer electronics (hereinafter collectively referred to as industry) have struggled with the rapid development of new technology and virtuality content. Here are the eight best thing for the industry should do to exploit the technology and recapture the simple thesis about giving the customer what they want.
1st Offering three consumption models.
a. Provide all content for free with ads.
All content should be available on demand at all times free of ads. The best examples of this so far is music videos on mtv.com, and music.yahoo.com and TV shows on in2tv.aol.com. The worst examples of this are TV networks that still insist on having their content will expire after only a short period of unemployment. Network will use the ad model to make their entire catalog of shows, past and present, is available free at all times. All media outlets such as iTunes, should also introduce an opportunity To listen to or watch a short ad per 10 minutes of content or so to enjoy all the content rather than just short preview clips.
b. Rent the entire contents without ads for a fee.
It is the same as 1a only without ads for a fee. The best examples of this so far is Netflix and Yahoo! Music Unlimited. In the past, as low as $ 8.99 per month, you can rent a movie in the store, and that now includes some that can be viewed directly online. With the latter, for as low as $ 5.99 per month you can listen to all songs in the shop as many times as you want without ads. All media outlets and websites should offer this option.
c. Sell all content Digital Rights Management (DRM or copy protection)-free.
There will always be a market for owning the content directly, as for the times when you just do not have an Internet connection or do not want to be tied to a server. In such cases, for both online and offline virtual formats physical formats DRM simply had to go. It has been shown to inhibit sales significantly due to treatment daily paying customers as if they are pirates that restrict them to play content on a few units, giving them chord to backup and manage licenses on their computer and violate their fair use rights. DRM will always be defeatable and industry simply have to stop invest an inordinate amount of time and money into something that has a negative impact on their bottom line. The industry should abandon it and get back to the starting point of letting the customer joy to experience content they paid for without any strings. The best example of this so far is EMI, which now allows media outlets to sell DRM-free songs.
2nd Wireless internet-enable all devices.
The computer may not be the only access point. TV, cable boxes, CD players, DVRs, game consoles, portable computers, boom boxes, phones, car head units – in short, all playback devices – should come with built-in wireless connection to the Internet to gain access to content servers. The best examples of this so far is the PlayStation 3 and iPhone / iPod touch Wi-Fi Music Store.
3rd End format wars.
When a new format is needed to encourage industry to the next level, there should be one and only one format that goes to market and become standard. Like 1c, this applies to both online and offline virtual formats physical formats.
The current example in physical formats are Blu-ray vs. HD DVD. Two formats were necessary at first to encourage competition, but the differences between them at this point is so insignificant that ultimately we must win for either to succeed. A standards body should exist to allow competition at the first and to supervise a limited beta period to ensure customer opinions factored in, but then eventually choosing a winner before full-scale market launch. Companies should be required to register candidate formats in the early stages. The standards body should track investments and invention for each candidate under way. So, a winner must be chosen with a percentage of license revenue goes to all the candidates equal to their investment and inventive levels. Candidates either accept these terms from the get-go or they do not participate in defining and profiting from the next generation format.
The current example in virtual formats are MP3 vs AAC vs WMA vs yet others for audio and mpeg-4 (H.264) vs WMV (VC-1) vs others still for the video. Together with 1c, the industry have standardized on mp3 and mpeg-4 en long time ago, ensuring that all content will be universally playable on every device.
Correction this immediately is crucial. The industry should get a standards body in place as soon as possible and declare much neglected industry standards, such as Blu-ray, MP3 and MPEG-4. Market Place will rejoice, sales will skyrocket and the floodgates opened on the dam industry itself has been one of the biggest contributors to the building.
4th Allow playlists to be defined and stored on servers.
With 1a and 1b do is move away from the need to store and manage our own copies of the content on our client devices (or on our shelves). Moving playlists out of the customers is a natural extension of this. When we can call up all content, including our favorite playlists on demand all the time everywhere we have an internet connection, the convenience of not having to permanent storage and backup our own copies of data will begin to win. The best example of this so far is Yahoo! Music Jukebox.
5th Offer film of Chapters all over.
As the norm is now to be able to buy individual songs instead of just whole albums, the same opportunity available for purchase by individual chapters of the movie. It would offer the same benefits as individual song sales – the ability to collect favorite chapters at lower cost and storage use, the ability to directly access chapters on playback and the ability to organize favorite chapters from different movies in playlists. Note that this would require players to pre-cache next chapter to ensure gapless chapter to chapter playback but it is certainly doable.
6th Offer a choice of bitrates.
Highly compressed bitrates were fine at first, but there is no doubt that even with today's bandwidth and storage (which will only grow with time), those who want to have a higher bitrates should have option. With 1a and 1b is the bandwidth the primary factor, and clearly higher bitrates is possible even today. With 1c online formats, is the holding also a factor, but even with today some capacity to choose quality over quantity of must-have content.
7th Piggy Back audio in video physical formats.
The industry moves to a new physical format is a large undertaking. Assuming a new HD format succeeds in video, so audio should just piggyback on that success. The video format will of course have sufficient capacity for sound, and consumers will not have to buy more players. Previous attempts HD Audio DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD failed for several reasons – separate audio-only players no single digital interface such as HDMI, format war, etc. – all of which can be avoided when either Blu-ray or HD DVD is declared standard. Albums in uncompressed PCM, both 2-channel Stereo and multi-channel surround, and with HD extras like music videos, live concert footage and still images all played through an existing player with a single HDMI connection would be very persuasive. With lossless compression, such as Dolby TrueHD, perhaps entire album box set could fit on one disc. These are exciting new opportunities.
8th Take advantage of viral marketing.
This is an extension of 1a. Give url addressability to free ad-linked content, anywhere can provide links to – at essentially similar to the free marketing for you. It does not matter from which the eyes were the contents, just that they found it. More eyes means more ad revenue in your pocket and more exposure will lead to the possible purchase of content and related products such as the concert tickets, shirts, posters, action figures, toys, etc. A free Ad-supported lure has always been necessary (radio and television) for widespread exposure. The best examples of this so far is music videos on mtv.com and music.yahoo.com and television shows on in2tv.aol.com. Music, Movies and all TV programs should come on board and realize the massive new source of constant ad revenue never before been possible without the new technology.
These eight things would take the industry out of its current crisis and carry it into the unprecedented growth area.
About the Author
Scott Consolatti is founder and president of Megacollage, a pioneer in online media compilations including music and video playlists, custom photo collages and text compilations. See for yourself how Megacollage combines the best of what today’s online content world has to offer by visiting http://www.megacollage.com/index.html .
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