What is Apple Thinking?

The Apple corporate slogan was, at one point, “Think Differently”. It may still be the current slogan. But if that’s the case, why didn’t they practice what they preach when they undertook their current iTunes Music Store business? As many of you know, Apple has reached an agreement with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to market music over the internet. Macintosh and iPod owners can download music from a list of something like 200,000 songs for the price of 99 cents per song.

Apple’s stock has actually risen over this news. And to be fair, the news reports that they have sold over 2 million songs since launching the service a few weeks ago. Apple also hopes that the Music Store will drive sales of their iPod devices.

In my mind, this is mostly bullshit. First off, 99 cents…let’s just call it a dollar…is still too much to pay for a song, particularly one that only exists in a digital format. When you go to the record store and buy a CD or vinyl 12 inch, you are still purchasing something that’s physically tangible. Downloading songs in a digital format is an intangible purchase. All that physically happens is some electrons get rearranged in the memory media of your iPod. The cost model is entirely different from a physical music purchase, so the cost of the product should reflect that. A buck a song is as much of a rip-off as buying a CD for $15 from your local Virgin Megastore.

I am not suggesting that music be given away for free and that musical artists starve. I am fervently hoping that the continuation of free music downloads via internet file-sharing (some call this theft…I do not) forces the recorded music industry to rethink their business model, which is mostly based on abusing the consumer by overcharging for their products. The new Apple Music Store is merely business as usual. To top it all off, the iPod is overpriced as well, but that’s always the case with Apple stuff.

But what’s even more disturbing to me is that it signals, once again, that Apple’s leadership is looking to move away from what they do best (creating cool hardware and the operating systems that run them) to fool around with selling software, only this time the software is pre-recorded music.

I’m not always pessimistic, but I don’t see this one working out they way they hope it will. Time will tell, but I stand firm in my assertion that a buck a song for digital downloads is too much for too little.

More later…
Paul

26 in a row?

Last Sunday, on Mother's Day, a young Florida native by the name of Richard "Ricky" Carmichael did the unthinkable...again. In 2002, Carmichael won the American Motorcyclists Association's National Outdoor Motocross championship by winning every single moto of every single race on the 12-race schedule. 24 motos in a row. No one could beat him. And on this Mother's Day, at the opening round of the 2003 championship season, Ricky once again demolished his competitors to add two more moto wins to his record-setting streak.

Can this young man be stopped?

Perhaps. Another young man from the South, Kevin Windham, looked to be the fastest rider of the day when he took off with the lead on the opening lap of the first moto and was steadily pulling away from Carmichael. Unfortunately, Windham fell and then had trouble re-starting his Honda CR450F, and ended up finishing well back in the pack. In the second moto, though, Windham was the only person able to keep Ricky (sort of) in sight. Kevin didn't beat Ricky, but he served notice that he has the speed and determination to put up a challenge.

The test will be at the next round, as the series moves to Central California, to see if Windham will be able to keep up his challenge, and if Carmichael will be able to extend his streak.

More later...
Paul

Gotta check this one out:

Go to this site and laff your ass off!

How can you mend a broken heart?

I can think of younger days when living for my life
Was everything a man could want to do
I could never see tomorrow, but I was never told about the sorrow

And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round?
How can you mend this broken man?
How can a loser ever win?
Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again

I can still feel the breeze that rustles through the trees
And misty memories of days gone by
We could never see tomorrow, no one said a word about the sorrow

And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round?
How can you mend this broken man?
How can a loser ever win?
Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again

- Lyrics by the great Al Green.

More later...
Paul

That's what I meant, anyway.

My sharp-eyed friend Mark Butler correctly pointed out that it was David Carradine, NOT David "Caine" (who the heck is he anyway?) that played the ass-kicking Shaolin monk in the tv series "Kung Fu". I sit corrected.

More later...(I promise!)
Paul