There was no small amount of excitement around the marketplace this week in anticipation of the ‘iTunes Announcement’.
Many I spoke to were hoping to hear about the much fabled iTunes-in-the-cloud service. Me too.
I’ve had enough dicking about with my own media files. I have multiple machines, multiple devices and I am aghast that Apple still require me to arse around with *actual files* to deliver my own media experience.
There’s a reason why hundreds of thousands of users have subscribed to Spotify. Yes it’s more efficient in terms of purchasing lots of songs — but the joy of Spotify is that the system gets out of the way. You want a song? Search it. Double click. It plays.
You want to keep it in a list? Fine, drag it to the left bar. Login via your iPhone … Guess what? It’s precisely the same experience.
I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to have to wait-until-I-get-home to transfer a song I have *purchased* that’s in my library on to my device of choice.
So on the fabled day — Tuesday, I think it was, Apple turned it’s website frontpage white and declared ‘something life changing is coming today’ (or similar words). A few hours later, a picture of The Beatles covered the whole page, complete with gushing excited accompanying text. I’m surprise Apple missed the mark. I haven’t managed to find anyone anongst the many iFans I know who’s had a good word to say about the news.
Big deal. You got The Beatles? Well, if I wanted their music on my iDevices, chances are, I already went out and bought the CDs. Or, I ‘borrowed’ the MP3s from a friend.
Oh I’m sure a lot of people will now purchase a good amount of Beatles tracks via iTunes too. It’s easier than going to a shop and buying a physical product.
But a momentous occasion? No.
Something to celebrate? No.
Does anybody care beyond Apple’s lawyers and The Beatles management? No.
Or have I got it all wrong?
