COPYCENSE

The idea of being able to play your music anywhere, on any device, has become a cliche without quite coming to pass. Viewed from a distance, this looks like one of technology’s greatest failures. If you’re acquainted with Orb, Sling Media, or MP3Tunes — all of which fulfill that promise to some degree — you’ll know how close we are to this goal. But for every breakthrough, it seems, there’s yet another setback.

“Look a little closer, and we see that for the most part it’s not the fault of the basic technology components. The networks are in place, the hard drives are big enough and the processors are fast enough for “audio everywhere”. And all are fairly affordable to a critical mass of the market, although the cost we bear is undoubtedly higher than it was in the analog era.

“Politics and greed are the problems.”

Andrew Orlowski. Digital Music Nirvana Isn’t Impossible, It Just Takes Longer. The Register. May 12, 2006.

See also:

Andrew Orlowski. File swapping MSPs — The Future of Digital Music? The Register. Aug. 26, 2005. (Interesting analysis of the overall costs of playing digital music.)

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.