Why music is more important than just music

Michael Gartenberg | December 01, 2005, 01:21 PM

I got an email last night asking what I meant about the implications of Apple dominating the music business and what those implications are important beyond music. It's a long answer but I'll try to summarize. We're rapidly moving into this world I've talked about called contextual flow. It's not just about me listening to my music at home on my stereo or even taking a few cassettes or CDs with me on the road. It's about my information flowing to me whatever the given context is and whatever device I happen to be using at the time. Here's the thing about Apple's bits. They only flow to Apple devices or Apple controlled software. In short, it goes where Apple says it goes. That means the iTunes song I buy works fine an iPod but not an iRiver. And if I want to flow that music stream? Well, if I want it to move around my house it will only go to my stereo via an Airport Express. If I want it on my phone, it better be an Apple sanctioned one. If it goes on my PC, that PC better have iTunes on it. All of those scenarios have strong implications for who controls the content infrastructure going forward.

Now, if you add in the thought of an Apple branded device serving as the content repository for your home, you begin to see how this might matter. Music is important but overall, owning the dominant position for music and portable media devices leads to other things. This is why Microsoft needs to be concerned. How bad is it? Well, as we expected, the iPod is having a runaway start to the holiday season. I haven't seen one report, one commentary that even mentions ANY other device. Imagine Apple launches some new stuff with a strong push in 06 (Apple wisely ignores the noise of CES and prefers to wait until the following week for Macworld. They get the stage all to themselves and get to see everyone else's hand a week before). Now we move to more quarters into 06. We're beyond the point of mainstream adopters. It's now mass market for the iPod. I'm not suggesting it's game over. But I will say, it's hard to see how anyone can pull the market away from them. Yes, there are ways I think it can be done, but no one's doing anything at the moment. At least that's the way it appears.