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Oh, ho hum. Music piracy was rampant until iTunes and the iPod changed the game to the extent of forcing (alongside court orders) Napster to go legit. Two decad

Oh, ho hum. Music piracy was rampant until iTunes and the iPod changed the game to the extent of forcing (alongside court orders) Napster to go legit. Two decades later, music streaming is ubiquitous, consumers are satisfied, and music piracy is a retro anachronism. This is just applying market pressure to bring about necessary product innovation through other means.

scarface74 4y ago
So do you expect all movies to be available for 99 cents or to be available a la carte like Spotify? Movies cost a lot more to produce than music. Besides, Spotify is losing money and even iTunes was never hugely profitable. It was primarily meant to sell iPods. The music distribution business is a horrible stand alone business
- Apocryphon 4y ago
  I'm sure that even as technology continues to innovate, and tech companies find all sorts of way to find innovative business models (though rising interest rates might end that renaissance of creative unit economics), they'll find a way to curb piracy by fixing the problem of too many streaming services, that they and the studios invented.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    Yes, if only there were companies that aggregated all of the content that anyone wanted and charged more for it. I’m sure since everyone is getting the same content they could send it through a cable… A money losing low margin business (Spotify) isn’t “innovative”
    - Apocryphon 4y ago
      Yes, maybe eventually they will invent a cable company that carries the streaming service-specific offerings of the Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and Apple TV+ libraries. I mean, that probably does exist, that's probably what Sling TV offers, people just opt to do something even simpler and less morally dubious than piracy: they share accounts with one another. That's been a common practice for over a decade now. > A money losing low margin business (Spotify) isn’t “innovative” And yet the iPod was. And without the iTunes Store, the iPod wouldn't have been the success that it was- it would have been dependent upon pirates.
      - scarface74 4y ago
        And the iPod became irrelevant as soon as the mobile phone became popular. Even the Roku which was originally created by Netflix and spun off as a company would have failed as a “Netflix box”
        Apocryphon 4y ago
        The iPod was dominant for almost a decade, without it there would be no iPhone. It is understandable to forget Galileo or Kepler once you get a Newton, but the iPod was absolutely iconic, and once again, the iTunes Store did much to eliminate music piracy. It goes to show that once a petty crime becomes widespread and normalized among consumers, it becomes a business problem for savvy companies to take advantage. Likewise, Steam, despite its DRM and other hassles, wiped out game piracy for some time. Of course, that same form of piracy is making a resurgence, partly because the video game platform space has become balkanized, annoying users who don't want to subscribe to the stores of EA, Ubisoft, Epic, et al. Much like what we may be seeing with movie and TV content.
        scarface74 4y ago
        Honestly, piracy for video games became less relevant because most of the game revenue comes from locked down platforms - mobile and consoles. Also, much of the revenue of from games these days come from in app purchases. As far as iPod sales, I won’t editorialize https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_quarter.svg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_quart...
        Apocryphon 4y ago
        Perhaps the rise of mobile gaming and decline of PC gaming in favor of consoles (if that’s actually happening at all) still substantiates my narrative that technology and businesses arise to address the needs causing piracy. So you’re agreeing with me. You keep talking about sales when I’m talking about impact on music piracy, the music industry in general, and cultural impact. I hardly think Jobs thought purely in sales and not the latter.

scarface74 4y ago

So do you expect all movies to be available for 99 cents or to be available a la carte like Spotify? Movies cost a lot more to produce than music. Besides, Spotify is losing money and even iTunes was never hugely profitable. It was primarily meant to sell iPods. The music distribution business is a horrible stand alone business

Apocryphon 4y ago
I'm sure that even as technology continues to innovate, and tech companies find all sorts of way to find innovative business models (though rising interest rates might end that renaissance of creative unit economics), they'll find a way to curb piracy by fixing the problem of too many streaming services, that they and the studios invented.
- scarface74 4y ago
  Yes, if only there were companies that aggregated all of the content that anyone wanted and charged more for it. I’m sure since everyone is getting the same content they could send it through a cable… A money losing low margin business (Spotify) isn’t “innovative”
  - Apocryphon 4y ago
    Yes, maybe eventually they will invent a cable company that carries the streaming service-specific offerings of the Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and Apple TV+ libraries. I mean, that probably does exist, that's probably what Sling TV offers, people just opt to do something even simpler and less morally dubious than piracy: they share accounts with one another. That's been a common practice for over a decade now. > A money losing low margin business (Spotify) isn’t “innovative” And yet the iPod was. And without the iTunes Store, the iPod wouldn't have been the success that it was- it would have been dependent upon pirates.
    - scarface74 4y ago
      And the iPod became irrelevant as soon as the mobile phone became popular. Even the Roku which was originally created by Netflix and spun off as a company would have failed as a “Netflix box”
      - Apocryphon 4y ago
        The iPod was dominant for almost a decade, without it there would be no iPhone. It is understandable to forget Galileo or Kepler once you get a Newton, but the iPod was absolutely iconic, and once again, the iTunes Store did much to eliminate music piracy. It goes to show that once a petty crime becomes widespread and normalized among consumers, it becomes a business problem for savvy companies to take advantage. Likewise, Steam, despite its DRM and other hassles, wiped out game piracy for some time. Of course, that same form of piracy is making a resurgence, partly because the video game platform space has become balkanized, annoying users who don't want to subscribe to the stores of EA, Ubisoft, Epic, et al. Much like what we may be seeing with movie and TV content.
        scarface74 4y ago
        Honestly, piracy for video games became less relevant because most of the game revenue comes from locked down platforms - mobile and consoles. Also, much of the revenue of from games these days come from in app purchases. As far as iPod sales, I won’t editorialize https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_quarter.svg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_quart...
        Apocryphon 4y ago
        Perhaps the rise of mobile gaming and decline of PC gaming in favor of consoles (if that’s actually happening at all) still substantiates my narrative that technology and businesses arise to address the needs causing piracy. So you’re agreeing with me. You keep talking about sales when I’m talking about impact on music piracy, the music industry in general, and cultural impact. I hardly think Jobs thought purely in sales and not the latter.