Dear Abby

The Shifted Librarian - Shifting Libraries at the speed of byte

Dear Abby

"According to the RIAA, CD sales dropped by 10% in 2001 and a further 6.8% last year, largely because of file sharing.

But the figures tell a different story.

In America and the rest of the world the biggest culprit in falling music sales is large-scale CD piracy by organised crime.
In just three years, sales of pirate CDs have more than doubled, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
Every third CD sold is a pirate copy, says the federation....
The pirate CD market is now so big, $4.6bn (£2.86bn), it is 'of greater value than the legitimate music market of every country in the world, except the USA and Japan'...." [BBC News, via Slashdot, emphasis above is mine]

Although this article doesn't really say anything new that the RIAA's critics haven't been saying for years, it's a good summary. The whole issue, though, is indicative of the media industry's attitude in general, that technology in the hands of ordinary people is bad if big business can't control it and keep it focused in one direction (them to us rather than interactive) in order to maintain their business models and bottom lines.

I don't work for a media or technology company that has to sell things to customers, but even I can see some of the obvious ways in which these businesses could start innovating and enhancing the user experience as the user wants to experience it.

To prove it, here are some ideas I'm throwing out to them for free....

Companies that make DVD players need to add an "instant replay" button to their remotes that repeats the last seven seconds or so. DVR owners know what I'm talking about - once you get access to that button, it takes over your life, especially if you have even the slightest hint of ADD or "senior moments" when you're listening to something but not really listening to it. Suddenly, you want everything in your life to have an "instant replay" button, and hardware manufacturers need to sit up and take notice of this. In fact, let's just call this Jenny's Law of Deja Vu - if you make a device that plays any type of media or is involved in communication in any way (cell phones!), you need to add an "instant replay" button. Just do it. You'll thank me, as will your customers.
Online music services are going to be a dime a dozen within the next year. You folks running them are going to have to start finding ways to differentiate yourselves from the service next door, and the sooner you do this, the better. You can't all be iTunes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. For example, I've bought a couple of albums from Rhapsody, but I've had to burn them myself and they don't give me cover art for my forced DIY project. If you're charging me $0.79 per song, you should throw in the cover art (size it for me ahead of time so all I have to do is hit "print") AND the lyrics. After all, Mr. Music Industry Man, you're not making me want to buy albums if all I'm getting is a shiny coaster for my trouble (after I rip the music to MP3). Add cover art and lyrics and you'll pull ahead of the pack. Really, this isn't brain surgery or rocket science here, folks.
Apparently some people do still read paper, particularly magazines, some of which are devoted to music. For example, did you know Rolling Stone still publishes (I do, now that they have an RSS feed! - just kidding). Actually, the one magazine I still read religiously is Entertainment Weekly, and it has a section devoted to music. I like reading the reviews, but I also like the occasional "Gimme 5 Choice Cuts for My Mix Tape" and "If You Like Music Group A, Try Music Group B" features. Of course, I have to take it on faith that EW isn't steering me wrong, though. Ah, but here's a novel idea - Mr. Music Industry Man could partner with Mr. Magazine Publisher Man to offer samples to whet my appetite. Why, some companies even have magazine and music publishing subsidiaries that could work together on this. What's that called again... synergy? It's not called "hypertext" and "the web" for nothing, people!
I like to listen to music in the background - when I'm working online, lazing in the pool, making dinner, falling asleep at night, etc. Sometimes, I want to listen to a few songs or an album and repeat it just once, but none of my devices allow that. Make these devices interactive and let me choose what type of repeat I want, not just "repeat all endlessly" or "repeat this one song endlessly." When Brent falls asleep, let me tell the CD player to play an album twice and then shut off. And actually, build this into MP3 players, too. The more I can control my media, the happier I am, the more I use it, the more I buy (well, when I'm not totally ticked off at and boycotting your industry). I know you don't believe it, but it's true. Try trusting your customers for a change and giving us what we want and you'll see. Really. No, really.

Now, if I can come up with this kind of stuff, can't these companies making billions of dollars get a little creative here? Just put some of the negative karma you're injecting into the universe into more positive efforts and reap the rewards. Steal these ideas... please!