Re: Getting students interested in physics


jmfbahciv@xxxxxxx wrote:
>
> Which was the only way the _customers_ (not consumers) could
> get the CDs they wanted. For decades the music biz issued
> one popular song on Side A and a crap song on Side B.
> People wanted a long playing record that had the songs
> each individual liked to hear. Before CD burners were
> available for retail, the only way a person could listen
> to his choices, and only his choices, was to have a 10CD
> player taking up room in his car trunk. And even then
> he had to endure some music that was not his choice.
>
> It took this stealing for the music biz to get off its ass
> and start to issue distribution agreements with business
> they don't own. As early as five years ago, I remember
> people in the music biz fighting against licensing
> distribution rights. It's taken the movie industry over
> a decade to catch up with the stores that rent tapes.
> They didn't notice that VCRs were outdated equipment
> and bucked changing that business model of distriubtion.
> Now with the new tech, it isn't taking them as long to
> adjust as before; but they are taking too long.
> Cable TV industry is doing the same foot-dragging
> in trying to preserved an outdated definition of exclusivity.
>

The media business is rife with this. Apple has hit an artery of
fundamental change.

Music industry sold albums as a way to make money off hit songs. They
could not distribute effectively customized CDs from a single artist to
suit multiple tastes, so they bundle a bunch of them together. They
recognized that they were not meeting a market need for
customer-centric customization, but they didn't have a product model to
support it. Enter WinAmp and iTunes, and the enabling technology is
there, and the music industry has to scramble to adapt its business
model to take advantage of it.

Radio is based on customer loyalty and inertia, and they have to
broadcast enough variety in their programming to meet the needs of a
critical mass audience, even though individual customers are really
only interested in one or two programs on that station. Moreover, since
the broadcast is serially delivered, they have to carefully optimize
what time slots they are offering the programs. Enter podcasting and
customers can now load and listen to only the programming that they
want to hear and on demand, and the radio industry has to scramble to
adapt its business model to take advantage of it.

Television is identical to radio, but in a more bandwidth-intensive
environment. Enter the video iPod, and the industry of podvids is born.
At this moment, TV executives are scrambling to adapt their business
model to take advantage of it.

Likewise, publishers struggle with books that are too long for the same
reason that music albums are too long -- no one can agree on what
content needs to be cut. Personal customization removes the requirement
for concensus, but there is no enabling technology yet to make the
distribution work. I predict that in a very short period of time,
someone is going to figure it out. It *should* be the publishers that
figure that out, but given the history of the music business, the radio
business, and the television business, I don't have much hope that this
will be the way it turns out.

PD

.

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