BY THE YEAR 2020 TRUTH IS

NO ONE KNOWS

Seems like there is always an article on here about how great the cloud will be and how we should all trust our data to it. Backing up 120GB to an external hard drive isn't that big of a deal if your files are organized properly. Just start the process before you go to bed. It will be done when you get up. It can even be automated. No big deal. Actually the idea of being able to listen to any song I want instantly and in high quality for a (hopefully) reasonable monthly fee isn't a bad idea. I listen to Pandora Radio myself quite a bit. That being said, I still like the idea of having my music available if the internet (or even the power) goes out. Also, not everyone today even has access to the Internet. By 2020 the percentage should have improved by quite a bit, but I doubt it will be 100% of the population.

While all the talk concerning clouding and streaming is well and good, the bottom line is how much is this going to cost us? Listening to any song on demand at high quality sounds great, but affordability will determine its success or failure. We should remember when cable TV came to replace the TV antennas once seen all across America. Sure we got more stations and the reception was fantastic, best of all when cable first came to my little town back in the late 70’s early 80’s the bill per month was only $7.95 as I recall and what a bargain for all those channels back then ( 30 of them I believe). Well as time passed and we all signed up and took our antennas off our roofs we began seeing more channels then options like HBO of course that was more money but worth it right? Well then the years passed and in order to watch your TV you had no choice but to have cable otherwise you could get 3 or 4 channels maybe 7 to 10 with the right “rabbit ears” and those were not worth watching. So we all become hooked no more like prisoners or beholding to the cable companies and their services. By the time the late 90s came average cable bills toped $60 per month or more (Basic service mind you) then they added more of this more of that and finally we went digital with all kinds of options costing all kinds of additional fees. Our cable bill is over $130 a month now. The moral to this little tip toe through history is simple what do you think clouding and streaming is going to cost by 2020 or in the coming few years

I assure you it won’t be free once or if they can get the masses hooked. Worse you will be charged and charged heavily and like the small charge to have cable in the beginning we will find ourselves being hit with fees and charges that will grow like wild fire over the years to come. Finally if we come to the point of using the clouding and streaming in masses and find we are locked in to paying to use our own content etc. it for sure will become huge fees we will be at their mercy and truly have no control of what we currently are capable of choosing to listen to or use what we bought and paid for choosing from our libraries at will without the need to connect to a service to retrieve what is ours.

The bottom line is as old as time “there is no such thing as something for nothing” even clouding and streaming!