Go Home Mandelson Downloading Music is Already Dead!

POOLE, England, December 1 - Finally the music industry can sit back and stop moaning about file
sharing. The days of downloading music are coming to an end. Not because of
Lord Mandelson's digital economy bill but thanks to excellent streaming
services. Last.fm and Spotify are now first choice options for listeners and
music lovers. Mandelson has already received a lot of negative comments from
many digital experts. Most significantly from BT and Talk Talk, two of the
biggest ISPs who are supposed to be on board. He really has turned up to the
party a little late, how many people will still be downloading music files in
2011?

Who wants to download anymore? Ask yourself the question, when did you
last download a music file? For me it was at the start of the year. Then I
purchased my new machine which meant I was faced with managing the thousands
of MP3s scattered across two computers, three external hard drives and a
handful of memory sticks as well as the box of smashed up CDs. It's the usual
issues with iTunes, you can almost feel it coming but still do nothing about
it. Then it happens, you re-install the program to find your library isn't
connecting and all the music has to be imported again. Then because of some
additional update iTunes insists you install, 20% of your music is not
allowed to be copied across. That causes the mass copy to fail so you have to
manually copy each album one at a time. Now you are ready to throw your
machine out the window and get your CD player out of the cupboard. Sound
familiar?

So with this experience in mind I dropped iTunes for the new wave of
online music innovators like Spotify, Grooveshark and Last.fm. I have been
loyal to iTunes for years (since the Winamp days) but now it only gets opened
for apps, podcasts and TV shows. Streaming is so much more flexible. The Zeta
last.fm library is a mix of goth, electro, hip-hop, ska, rock and punk which
represents the Zeta collective taste… it works perfectly.

I find out about new bands and trends through Last.fm. I use Spotify to
stream all of my albums, setup playlists and use the iPhone app on the move.
Recently I've become the number one fan of Grooveshark, which has access to
most of the bands and albums Spotify doesn't have, such as Radiohead's "In
Rainbows".

Grooveshark is an online app rather than a desktop app like Spotify so I
am not dependant on the program being installed, and what a beautiful app it
is, very simple to use and it has a slick playlist builder tool similar to
the Flickr photo stream editor.

Thanks to Last.fm and Spotify the future looks bright for music online,
even Sky has launched Sky Songs for streaming although they offer 10 free
downloads when you sign up which seems a strange offer for people signing up
to a streaming service. There are more services popping up all the time.
MixCloud is an on-demand radio service where radio shows, podcasts and DJ
sets can be streamed on demand. It refers to itself as the YouTube of radio
and is a very very cool service. There is also the anticipated Guvera which
has started offering pre-registration for the beta launch. The promises and
obvious link to Che Guevara are an exciting prospect and I look forward to
giving this a go.

So with all of these great services why is Mandelson's digital economy
bill so out of touch? Because there is no thought of the new generation of
music innovators, or how to take the legal services forward to improve the
relationship between consumer and label. It just doesn't make sense,
downloading music is a thing of the past and TV and film will follow shortly.
Google and Sony have been in talks since April over streaming full length
films through YouTube. Hulu and Crackle already offer film and TV streaming
services as well as the hugely successful BBC iPlayer which has changed the
way we watch TV.

Steve Jobs revolutionised music in 2003 with the launch of iTunes, but it
is the next generation of new music innovators which will map out the future
of how we listen to music.

Visit the Zeta press and media centre:

www.zeta.net/blog/2009/11/mandelson-downloading-music-dead/

Zeta contact details:

Henry Allen, Zeta, 3 Winchester Place, North Street, Poole, Dorset, BH15
1NX, UK Tel: +44-(0)1202-237137 Email: henry@zeta.net

Zeta contact details: Henry Allen, Zeta, 3 Winchester Place, North Street, Poole, Dorset, BH15 1NX, UK Tel: +44-(0)1202-237137 Email: henry at zeta.net