Tech Changes-

Death of old favorites

Marshall Brain, HowStuffWorks.com

As we stand here at the beginning of a new decade, have you thought about everything that died in the past one? As new technologies rise up, they often kill off older technologies. Let's review some of the death and destruction that has occurred over the past 10 years.

The record store: This is hard to believe today, but just 10 years ago people bought all of their music at record stores. Napster, which marked the beginning of the end for record stores, was invented in June of 1999. Before that, no one had ever heard of an MP3 file. Napster made the MP3 file a household name, and dramatically boosted the idea of portable MP3 players (invented in 1998). The iPod first appeared in 2001, along with iTunes. With the rise of digital music, the need to go to a physical store to buy music died, and record stores started closing.

Compact discs: The CD is now in its death throes, as it is being replaced by electronic music files. And with death of CDs the concept of an "album" has lost much of its power. People now buy their songs one at a time.

Cassette tapes: The cassette tape lived alongside the CD because you could record onto a cassette, and cars and stereos all had cassette players. The portable MP3 player killed the cassette.

Other tapes: DVD players were still rare in 2000, having been first introduced in 1997 in the United States, so everyone was using videotape cassettes for their videos. Most answering machines still used tape, and camcorders all used tape in 2000. Video cassettes have been completely replaced by DVDs. Camcorders may still use tape, but more and more the tape is replaced by flash memory, so this last vestige of tape is about to disappear as well.

Answering machines: They are pretty much dead, having been replaced by voice mail systems that come with your cell phone plan or your telephone service.

Telephones: The entire telephone industry has been transformed in the past decade. In the year 2000, just about everyone had a land-line connection to the local phone company, and then had an account with one of the big long-distance carriers (AT&T, MCI, Sprint, etc.) to handle non local calls. Many people today have no connection to the local phone company at all, and the concept of long distance has largely died. Most telephony is now handled by your cell phone or your Intenet connection.

Film cameras: The digital camera killed film. In 2000, a good digital camera had 2 megapixel resolutions, very little memory, poor battery life and cost about $500. Digital cameras were luxury items, and if you wanted a "decent" picture you still used film. Today film is almost completely dead. Even the movie industry - the last big user of film - is rapidly going digital because the cost of film and processing is so high.

TV and monitors: Remember the cathode ray tube? Your TV and computer monitors were as big as buses. Now they are thin and light. Internet, the killer TV Guide is dead because of a combination of cable boxes and the Internet.

Internet, the Killer

Stock quotes in the newspaper used to be common (and you used to call a stock broker to do a stock trade). That has been completely replaced by the Internet.
Encyclopedias died along with phone books and the Yellow Pages.
Paper maps were replaced by online mapping sites, which were then replaced by GPS receivers.
Newspaper classified ads took a big hit from online classified sites, such as Craigslist.

Uphill Battles

Today there are several centuries-old technologies struggling because of the Internet.
Bookstores face the same problem that record stores did.
Printed newspapers and magazines are in peril (although, most will survive in new digital form).
The audience for the network news has been falling as more and more people get their news
from the Internet.

The next decade could be even more interesting, and we will get to watch it happen before our very eyes.

Maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised!

For several years now we have continually refined and enhanced the IF Music kiosk and service as leading retailers, service providers and the music industry have continued to visit us and express their enthusiasm and ideas for IF. We have made no secret of our surprise at this outpouring of excitement and we are eternally grateful to everyone who is involved.
Our own research had certainly validated the IF Music concept but almost daily new surveys are released that examine and confirm the driving forces that have come together to benefit everyone involved with IF Music. As just a few examples:

The Kaiser Family Foundation survey of young people from 8 to 18 years old reports that digital media absolutely dominates kid’s waking hours. When they are not in school, young Americans are spending nearly every waking hour absorbed in entertainment media on mobile phones, MP3 players, and other consumer electronics, a study released on January 20th showed. The amount of time young Americans spend on entertainment media through cell phones, MP3 players, and other mobile devices has risen to an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes a day, according to the survey which is conducted every five years. However, because young people often use more than one medium at a time, they actually managed to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content into those 7.5 hours.
Driving media consumption is the ready access to mobile devices. Ownership of such gadgets has increased since 2004 from 39% to 66% for mobile phones and from 18% to 76% for MP3 players. As a result, young people now spend more time listening to tunes, playing games, and watching TV on their mobile phones than they spend talking on them.

While this may come as no surprise to many parents we think the following survey from the United Kingdom will validate what many music lovers of all ages might expect:

People who illegally download music spend more on official releases than anyone else, according to a new survey.
The study, published today by think-tank Demos, found those who admit to file sharing spent an average £77 a year on singles and albums - £33 more than those who claim never to have wrongly accessed music for free.
Researcher Peter Bradwell said the findings should force companies and politicians to 'wake up to the changing nature' of the music industry as the Government plans to disconnect illegal downloaders from the internet in a 'three strikes and you're out' rule.
An estimated seven million UK users download files illegally every year, which will cost the industry £200million in 2009, according to trade association, the British Phonographic Industry.
Artists Lily Allen and James Blunt recently voiced support for the Government plans, while Latin pop star Shakira claims illegal file sharing brings her closer to her fans.
The survey also revealed nearly two thirds of file sharers said new and cheaper music services would encourage them to stop accessing illegal services. It found that by lowering the price of music available online to 45p per track - compared to between 59p and 99p on iTunes - providers could expect to double interest in legal sales.
Eight-three per cent of people downloading music illegally said they buy more music as a result, while 42 per cent said they did so to 'try before you buy'.
But the Government is pressing ahead with plans for harsher punishments to act as a deterrent.
A Digital Economy Bill is expected to be introduced to parliament later this month, with its draft promising to create a 'robust legal and regulatory framework to combat illegal file sharing'.

Fortunately the British government are not alone is their zeal to combat illegal music downloading:

US ISP Verizon has confirmed that some customers have been booted off its broadband service for multiple copyright infringement offences.
“We’ve cut some people off,” spokeswoman Bobbi Henson tells CNET. “We do reserve the right to discontinue service. But we don’t throttle bandwidth like Comcast was doing. Verizon does not have bandwidth caps.” Meanwhile, Henson says that sending warning emails to customers accused of illegally downloading has been effective.
“We’ve found that we don’t have to warn most people a second time. Most people stop. Or they tell whoever is doing it to stop… You get a teenager doing it, and the parent gets the e-mail, and they tell them to cut it out.”

These are just a few of the many, many factors that explain why a whimsical device that downloads music in social settings nationwide, advertises for both self promotion and profit, and offers a choice of a myriad of other services from ticketing to education is rapidly sweeping the country.

Maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised after all!

The Possibilities continue…

Can Something This much Fun

Actually be Educational?

We hate to admit it but our little patch of earth here on the Gulf coast of Florida is not exactly the center of the universe. Having said that when your children come home from school here saying they spent an hour in class listening to iPods you start to wonder what’s going on.

As our local paper, the St. Petersburg Times reports in today’s issue that the iPod has taken on a whole new life in the schools:

“Devyn Cabral and Britney Croman lounged in papasan-style chairs at the back of their fifth-grade classroom, iPod headphones jammed in their ears. While their Shady Hills Elementary School classmates focused on their 90-minute reading block, the two girls listened and laughed.

Teacher Debbie Hunnell didn't even blink. She did, after all, bring in the iPods for her students. "They love using the iPods," Hunnell said. "They like being able to hear the personality of the author. They can listen to things that are harder to understand. … It's highly motivational."

Devyn put it in the terms of an 11-year-old. "It's cool," she said, taking a break from Science Fair by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. "When you're sitting at your desk and reading a book, it's harder. It's easier for me to comprehend by listening to it."
Throughout Shady Hills Elementary, teachers have been taking advantage of iPods as an extra tool aimed at encouraging their students to learn in different ways. The iPods are finding their way into the curriculum as a less expensive, more portable piece of technology that teachers and students can use when computer labs, for instance, aren't available. The school has 80 iPods, available in sets for teachers to check out for their classrooms. And more are on order.

Embracing technology

The way that Shady Hills puts them into play has garnered attention across Florida. Media specialist Tracy Bonnett and technology specialist Jerry Marsh recently presented their program at the Florida Association for Media in Education annual conference, getting several inquiries about how to duplicate their model.”

Here at IF Music this comes as no surprise as we have been discussing the potential educational benefits of the IF kiosk for some time now. Our programming allows the kiosk to instantly reverse its primary function of selling music to a function of educating and even testing awareness of issues such as the care of the environment while providing music downloads as a reward for excellent performance.

It’s just one more example of how broad the many applications of a whimsical and magnetic device can be, particularly when it is placed everywhere its key customers frequent. Books and podcasts are all available at the touch of a screen and retailers can run periodic philanthropic promotions in ways that are limited only by their imaginations!

only we could take all the credit!!

Over two and half years ago we began what has become a passionate journey that has resulted in the IF Music kiosk. Our goal was to create something fun, fanciful and enticing that would allow people to buy and enjoy digital music away from the solitude of a home computer. We wanted music buying to be just as much of a pleasure and a social experience as it had been during the heyday of the record stores when they were the place to see and be seen, and to meet and hang out with your friends. We thought our many friends in the retail industry could benefit from the experience as well and wanted to make sure that along with the attraction of the music their customers could be informed and incentivized about their products and services all along the way.

We have spent over 30 months dedicated to making sure every aspect of the kiosk, the software, the operation, the look and feel of IF were as close to perfect as we could make them. We tested and tested with scores of people across the country and with retailers in dozens of varied businesses. In the end we were sure we knew all there was to know about the IF music kiosk and its potential to delight music lovers, to cause them to tell their friends about the kiosk and service and the fact that they loved promotions tied to the use of the kiosk and the places that housed it.

On a daily basis we are thrilled to find out that despite our best efforts we had only scratched the surface of the possibilities. The surprises began with the massive interest that the finest retailers showed in our product and service. They continued when we were approached by virtually all of the major music labels whose crystal balls pointed directly to the direction we were headed and who knew that our favorite retailers were indeed their customer’s favorite retailers. We never considered the concert and music tie in promotions that major soft drink companies suggested pro-actively. We thought they had reached a peak when some of the largest ticketing and entertainment companies approached us with incredible ideas about the potential of offering tickets for the benefit of both customers and retailers from every kiosk…all without us ever having approached them.

Just when it seemed that we had been informed of every brilliant use that can be found for a magnetic and simple to use kiosk that attracts everyone old and young we have been shocked once again…this time by something that recalls the phrase “everything old is new again”…the coupon. It turns out that coupon’s are a very hot commodity. The current economy has certainly focused people’s minds on value and top retailers from Macy’s to the best in fast food chains have all discovered the amazing power of this simple instrument to drive and enhance revenue. So powerful in fact that value conscience consumers have taken to buying their favorite retailers coupons in addition to hunting them down in the mail or clipping from the paper. As of today there are over 30,000 listings for coupons for sale on eBay and the number has been growing monthly for several years now.

And so coupons join the ever expanding list of benefits that IF Music customers and retailers benefit from. These can be the “virtual” coupon that we envisioned all along…the promotion, the bonus item, the offer, the advertisement etc. that our kiosk displays at your command and can be tied instantly to a music purchase. They can be “new age” coupons displayed as a text message and transmitted from the kiosk to a user’s cell phone. Or they can be of the printed variety that can be saved and redeemed by the consumer…printed wirelessly and instantly via the same mechanism that allows your customers to buy tickets or that turns any location into a box office “will call” for every event in town!

Who knows what’s next? There are lots of clever people we have the privilege to hear from every day. The one thing they all have in common is their excitement about the IF kiosk and the potential for it to attract and serve people for a wide variety of exciting applications. From the very beginning we echoed Kevin Costner’s catch phrase “If we build it they will come.” We are delighted that this was more true than we ever imagined and in ways we are only beginning to fully understand. Our tremendous thanks to everyone who is enjoying the journey and especially to those that continue to find new ways or offer new ideas to enhance all of our futures!

A Future without Kiosks?

Not Very Likely...thank you!

Just this week we were told that there will be no kiosks in the future! We have to suppose that as with all things it will depend upon what your definition of “the future” is. We can’t comment on life hundreds of years from now but as to the next ten years or so from now we will stick to an old African proverb…”the future belongs to those who prepare for it today!” At the risk of looking old fashioned in our quest for the future our version of “preparation” involved lots of hours of hard work and money, complete integrity, and lots of independent testing and research.

What this has shown us is that kiosks are anything but on the decline…in fact the marketplace for kiosks is growing so quickly that market analysts are predicting that by 2013…just over three years from now…they will be viewed by average citizens as “a way of life”.

Part of this success is fueled by the need for people to transact every aspect of their life as conveniently as possible in as many public places as possible. The remainder is sparked by businesses and institutions that have been reminded by the current economy that every cost needs to be kept in check for survival.

Transactions completed by consumers in North America using self-service kiosks are projected to more than double over the next few years, according to a new research study from IHL Group.A newly released report, “2009 North American Self-Service Kiosks,” forecasts the value of self-service kiosk transactions will grow from $775 billion this year to more than $1.6 trillion by 2013. According to Lee Holman, lead retail analyst of the IHL Group, the ongoing recession is contributing to the growth of self-service kiosks as businesses and institutions turn to the technology to keep labor costs in check.

In particular, retailers, restaurants and transportation authorities can expect to see continued double-digit revenue growth from self-service kiosk transactions, said Holman. The report is outstanding news for the digital signage market. It is no surprise that pairing traditional linear digital signage with interactive capability is a powerful tool for anyone who has a message to deliver and a transaction to conduct.

The IF Music take from this and many other recent reports that validate these predictions is that the kiosk marketplace is growing by the minute and we can confirm this with every test we conduct and in virtually every location we visit.

It goes without saying that the winners in the kiosk marketplace will offer a true value-added service. We believe that the leaders in this marketplace will take this many steps further…differentiating the look, the appeal, the enticement and the sheer fun involved in using their kiosks. We believe they will combine value-added services to complement each other… to combine offers, bundles, digital signage and digital services tailored to the requirements of the actual audience at each location.

In our crystal ball music, tickets, food, movies, entertainment, shopping and information are all related so long as they reach a specific targeted audience who have fun accessing all of these in a single, social, convenient location. That crystal ball has become the strategic business plan for what is now IF Music.

IF this plan were the future we would say it was a bright one indeed. IF we could combine these features we were sure it would be massive for everyone involved. IF we could persevere and our supporters had patience we felt the wait would be worth it.

We did, we have, and it is!

IF Music-Music (and Tickets, and Promotions, and Savings, and Information etc. etc.) Truly Everywhere!

"If you build it they will come"

That is exactly what IF Music did and yes…they are certainly coming!

Just a few years ago who would have imagined that you could store your entire music collection on a tiny device you can hold in your hand? These days for less than $200 you can buy an iPod that will hold 30,000 four minute songs…that is 2000 hours of music or over 83 days, 24 hours a day without a single repeat of a track!

It was not too many years ago that we all had jewel cases stacked everywhere that comprised our music collections and many of us still do. Before that those of us of a “certain age” collected our music on vinyl and it was not uncommon to see large stacks of albums stuffed into crates taking up huge amounts of space and often getting scratched or ruined in the process. A collection of over 2775 LP albums can now be carried with you on a single iPod or MP3 device. That is over 60 milk crates worth of albums in your pocket!

But enough with the mathematics…the bottom line is that today’s music collectors can collect vast amounts of music, far beyond what we did in our youth, while keeping it all right in the palm of their hand! Every so often milestones are announced that put into perspective how far we've come, the direction we're heading and hopefully give us a peek into the future. The milestone announcement of the first digital camera reminded us of how much photography has evolved putting film developers and traditional camera makers on notice that things were about to change. The same could be said for other milestone announcements: the first car, the first mobile phone, the first VCR etc., etc.

Before you let out a yawn, consider the following: since its introduction just a few years ago the MP3 music file has had a significant impact on our lives in a relatively short period of time. Even if you've never owned a computer, this data file and the devices that evolved to hold them has changed your life. This is evidenced in the closure of music stores by the thousands and the rapidly disappearing CD format from the remaining stores. While a declining selection of CD’s is still available in most major department stores they are rapidly taking a course that cassettes, 8-tracks, LP’s, 45’s and 78’s have taken over the past 50 years all thanks to the popularity and ease of digitally downloaded MP3 music and the amazing array of low cost devices that hold it and play it in every conceibable way. For those whose massive collections of music exceed 2000 hours, hard drives are available four under $100 enabling users to store a Terabyte or 17,066 hours…almost two years worth of non-stop music on a single device the size of a paperback book. For many the massive choice of music available coupled with the incredible and inexpensive technology has made the hobby of collecting music an obsession or what can almost be affectionately called an addiction…and all thanks to this new technology which continues to grow by the minute.

As can happen with all change there can be some very positive aspects that are lost along the way. Certainly the ability to socially enjoy and purchase music outside of the home and with friends in a public setting is one of these. In years gone by record stores were an important part of the community, particularly for those 25 and under in age. What music you didn’t learn about or share in the record store could be easily achieved by the juke box in the local pizza parlor or hamburger stand. While those days are long gone the desire for people, and particularly young people, to get out of the home, socialize with friends and discuss, debate, enjoy and buy music is stronger than ever.

Virtually anything today can be purchased over the internet or via the phone for home delivery. Clothes, video games, DVD’s, restaurant food, or any other consumable is available at the touch of a mouse or phone key yet people flock to malls, restaurants, shops, etc. We are truly social creatures and the desitination is often secondary to the journey and the company that is involved…all outside the confines of home. DVD kiosks continue to expand and flourish despite the massive selection on cable TV, the internet and the availability of inexpensive mail order DVD rentals simply because they are an convenient, inexpensive way to interact outside the home even when the interaction is with an innovative machine, though more often this evolves into a discussion with other like minded customers who frequent the kiosks. After a few of these successful interactions the new way of purchasing quickly becomes a conditioned habit and the new method replaces the old very quickly.

We have spent years researching, developing and refining the IF Music kiosk so that it will instantly deliver those enjoyable, social, fun, convenient interactions for everyone from small children to seasoned techophiles to the most senior of citizens…all of whom share a love of music and a desire to be out of the home. With each successful test we have continued to refine our kiosk and service to deliver more value, more excitement and more fun to the point where the world’s finest retailers have actually beat a path to our door looking to enhance their customers lives and rekindle the excitement of the record store or the pizza parlor in an entirely new way. At the same time the worlds experts on music enjoyment…the record companies, from major labels to small independents all know that the MP3 format is the way of the future and all lament the lack of new, public, social, fun ways to enjoy these. They too have seen, touched and trialed the IF kiosk with huge success and yet we insisted we would make it better still.

No matter what the product is nothing will ever take the place of an out of home experience. We believe that something this important, this new and exciting demands perfection in every aspect of its appearance, construction and operation. We have achieved this and we thank you for your patience…it will have been well worth it we promise!!

http://www.musicbyday.com/