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Roaming
Four of the greatest inventions of my lifetime are ATMs, EZpass, cellphones, and subscription music. Three of these inventions have adopted roaming and the other one needs to.
When I first used an ATM in the late 70s, you had to find an ATM for your bank. But soon there were networks like Cirrus that allowed you to "roam" to any ATM and pay a small charge. That made life so much easier.
The same thing happened with cellular phones. When I landed in Venice last month, my blackberry immediately connected to some italian wireless phone company and I was in business.
EZpass, the prepaid toll system we use here in New York, is an amazing thing. I never wait in line at the toll booth anymore. And when I drive in New Jersey, their automated toll system recognizes my EZPass and lets my through in the fast lane.
But that's not how it works with subscription music. Some people use Napster. Some use Rhapsody. Some use Yahoo Music. I think these services should get together and let their users "roam" onto other networks. Let's say my brother uses Napster and he wants to send me a link to a song by Gomez. He sends me a Napster link and I can't listen. But I should be able to do that. Either translate that link to a Rhapsody link or let me log into Napster using my Rhapsody account.
ATMs, cellphones, and automated toll systems have shown that by being open everyone wins. The subscription music services should take a page from their playbook and do the same.
Comments (11) | Posted January 18, 2007 in Venture Capital and Technology
Comments
Whie we're at it can that extend to the underlying DRM models and also embrace eBooks (http://blog.offbeatmammal.com/blogs/obm/archive/2007/01/12/ebooks-why-i-still-don-t-subscribe.aspx)
My biggest fear with any of these services is that I'd invest a lot of "love" with one provider and when they disappear in a few years time I'll be stuck!
Posted by: OffBeatMammal | Jan 18, 2007 12:14:53 PM
Nice insight! Napster, Rhapsody and Yahoo!Music could easily take out iTunes with an alliance program - as long as they don't call it "roaming."
Posted by: Matthew Stotts | Jan 18, 2007 12:38:23 PM
My original comment was BUSTED by this blog's spam filter. So I posted it in my blog, and you can read it by clicking on my name...of course this method is infinitely more spammish than the original comment, so chalk one up to irony.
Posted by: Andy Swan | Jan 18, 2007 4:46:13 PM
based on the first three technologies, i thought you were going to ask for the ability to physically roam around with your subscription, e.g. have Sonos like rhapsody browsing ported through your iphone/sonyericsson walkman/ROKR/blackberry. i would much rather pay 10 bucks a month and have my walkman phone play browzable rhapsody music than have to be saving my pennies for the new 8gig memorystick pro-duo i need to fit all the music i want on there. damn thing (the tiny memory stick) costs 300 bucks though.
Posted by: sp0078 | Jan 18, 2007 5:01:32 PM
Actually, what you need is a universal ID for music.
IMDB is the defacto database for all movies. You can use the IMDB number to find a movie on other sites like Rotten Tomatoes... you need something similar for music where all music is given an ID number and then you could plug that ID number into anything (last.fm, amazon, whatever) and it would understand it.
Posted by: engtech | Jan 18, 2007 7:04:02 PM
So glad you brought up EZ Pass!
What is the possibility of making EZ Pass mandatory for all cars? Here's why I ask:
There was so much traffic on the road this past Thanksgiving that all the non-EZ Pass people clogged the EZ Pass lanes. We have EZ Pass and didn't get the benefit because everyone ignored the lane rules. We (along with thousands of other cars right near us) were in traffic for almost 3 hours.
If a universal, standardized EZ Pass chip could be built into all cars coming off the assembly lines, then people would have to activate their account when they bought a car (or carry over an existing account). All toll plazas could be converted to ALL EZ Pass.
Imagine all the money, gas, and time it would save, along with providing environmental benefits, that a universal, standardized EZ Pass system would save.
I know there would be a lot of hurdles to getting this started/done, but I think this is an interesting possibility that could really revolutionize commuting/car travel if it is realized.
Posted by: KG | Jan 18, 2007 9:38:24 PM
I had the enormous professional frustration (summarized as "government procurement with 'roid rage") & personal satisfaction of being involved in the EZ Pass initiative as one of the first employees of an RFID technology startup, a software architect for the solution, and lead sales guy for the first actual EZ Pass implementation. Glad you all like it! There is/was a case study at least, and maybe a book, about getting that system off the ground!
On another matter, keep your eyes open for music from Joan as Policewoman, and Amy Winehouse.
Posted by: Douglas | Jan 19, 2007 11:12:40 AM
Interesting analogy between the ATM networks and the subscription music service. If and when these services allowing "roaming" do you think they'll hit us up with the equivalent of an ATM fee for using the other service?
Posted by: Mike | Jan 19, 2007 11:17:22 AM
This is slightly afield from the blog entry, but important and related. EZ-pass was designed as a "billing" system rather than as a "cash" (or reloadable) system. This required more infrastructure on the back end but far worse, leaks privacy. With EZ-pass (and all the equivalent systems in the USA) each usage generates a billing entry rather than just debiting an anonymous cash account. Building it into the car would be even worse.
It seems, Fred, that the systems you describe haven't been designed with privacy in mind; those that did at least support it (e.g. buying working, prepaid mobile phones at the grocery store in Europe) have had the privacy squashed out.
Any thoughts on this issue?
Posted by: DV Henkel-Wallace | Jan 20, 2007 12:13:13 PM
In the initial implementations of the non-stop toll system we created, anonymous cash accounts were supported. Even back in the 80's most European countries already had in place privacy protection laws that effetively mandated this option. The support of this type of user account is a policy decision, not a technology issue...
Posted by: Douglas | Jan 20, 2007 12:31:04 PM
Are you familiar with the Octopus card in Hong Kong? It's like the EZpass on steroids. It works on ALL subways, trains, buses, and taxis there. It also works at parking meters, 7 Elevens, and a number of other convenience stores. You can add money at convenience stores very quickly -- just hand them the money and tell them you want to add it to your card and press the card up against the reader. It's the best integrated system I've seen anywhere in the world.
http://www.octopuscards.com/consumer/en/index.jsp
Posted by: Patrick Lee | Jan 26, 2007 12:03:09 AM
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