I actually learned a lot from writing this article.
The SACD/DVD-Audio dabacle was so interesting to me because the industry ignored a solution to their own desires. I agree with the assessment that the compressed audio solution was the popular movement, however the clamor for a secure file format was what the industry/labels wanted... and they ignored the solution that was right in front of them.
Nod. I guess I just don't know that SACD and the like would be all that secure. It would take more hardware to break, and that I assume would be more difficult than just software like previous attempts... but, I think it would eventually get ripped to an open format like DVDs were. Maybe it wouldn't play on the same player, but, software would come along to read the new format.. I'm blathering and talking way over my head, but, maybe I got enough down to see where my brain was going there?
When you want to keep making money you have 3 choices... add more of it (in this case tracks), cut prices and seek more volume (distribution), or increase the value of your product... Well adding more tracks was out of the question and distribution was already maxed out... but...
They probably looked at this, but I wonder how big their market would really be? I see less and less surround sound systems. Theaters are still popular in large homes, but I actually see /less/ surround sound in regular homes than I did years ago. I see a ton of LCDs, but less home theater systems.
I think that the pain of wiring them, the difficultly of use, and the cost just killed it for a lot of people. Buy an iPod for a few hundred bucks, but to get a decent looking surround sound system is big money. The little home theater in a box things went for a while, but, people eventually realized that hassle of them wasn't worth the rather ordinary improvement in their experience.
The labels could have increased the value of their product (surround sound and adding video) for almost negligible costs. I'm not talking full-out video with 3D animation, effects and a storyline.. I'm talking behind the scenes music videos that can be cut by a college student in his underwear on an Apple HD rig (at worst).
Agreed.
But, I think some of the problems we are seeing with our "stuck" economy today is just that we have a hard time stepping outside of our specialized worlds. I think almost every industry has fallen victim to this, and those that have gotten past it have been wildly successful. Customer oriented ideas like delivering movies that weigh less than a letter through the mail, or an easy to use portable music system that connects to your computer.
Look at the automotive industry. How could they have come up with all these different car models? They all look the same, share most the same parts. It's people looking at numbers and months and figures and forgetting to open their eyes and see the obvious.
Look at the airline industry. I used to fly all the time, and love to travel. Now I can't stand it, I look for every way to avoid it. I have to go to Ibiza this summer and I dread the flight. In a month when I travel to Denver I had to use something like 5,000 miles for my upgrade. To fly to Frankfurt I had to use 20,000 miles. The flight attendants are mostly mean and lazy, the food sucks, all this technology in this expensive plane and they can't even get a decent movie system or the bloody internet on most of them. They make it MISERABLE and GROSSLY INEFFICIENT then wonder why they are in business trouble.
Part of it stems to their obvious loss of looking at how people actually travel. The Airbus A380 makes no sense to me. Take 550 people while they travel and ask them where they are going, I bet you on a flight to Frankfurt the majority aren't even stopping there. They make these huge airplanes, and then they need hubs and giant infastructure to support them. Since people generally go many different places, they should make smaller airplanes and have smaller airports and run them like a train. Which, maybe a more obvious idea would be to use less expensive methods of travel.... like bloody trains. You need airplanes to get across the pond, but for most travel a high speed train would be fine. Sure works for me in Europe, and I don't arrive feeling like crap because I can have things like "space" and "fresh air coming in" and "food"
I know I'm spreading out and ranting, but it really is all connected. It's the same problem, and I think we are all suffering from it to some degree. It's like the world has lost its perspective.
