A Musicteller is an ATM for music instead of money. The commonly discussed version of it requires an MP3 player (like iPod, Rio, etc.) You would look through a menu of songs, choose the ones you like, put in a credit card and download the songs directly to your MP3 player.
It’s also possible that instead of an MP3 player, you’ll be able to get a custom CD delivered directly from the machine.
It will probably look a lot like an ATM. It will have a port where you can plug in your MP3 player, a bunch of buttons, a video screen, a credit card slot and, of course, good speakers. You’ll get a menu asking for a credit card. When your ability to pay is confirmed, you’ll see a menu of musical genres like Country, Folk, Classical, 50s Rock, 60s Rock, Metal, World, etc., etc., etc. By choosing a musical genre, you’ll open the catalog to lists of albums and artists. You’ll be able to listen to snippets of songs to aid in your selection. When you’ve made your decision, it will be time to check out. At that time you’ll have to decide whether you want to install them directly on your MP3 player, or burn them to a CD. There will probably be a small charge for the CD.
No doubt record companies will make it possible for us to buy gift certificates as well. What teenager wouldn’t love a gift card that lets him pick out a dozen or more songs and build a custom CD?
Why is a musicteller a good idea for record companies?
Since Napster and other peer-to-peer file trading networks became popular, the record companies have been very concerned about music piracy. That is the practice of sharing copyright protected material without paying the owner. This is considered theft of intellectual property, also know as piracy.
On the other hand, it’s obvious that many people would like to own a song or two by a particular artist, but don’t want to buy the whole CD. It’s to the record company’s advantage to give the customer what they want, in a way that does not help music pirates. A musicteller that creates CDs would fill that order nicely.
Why do record Stores want Musicteller?
For music stores, musictellers are a mixed blessing. On the one hand, anything that gets more people into the shop and buying things is good. With Internet connections becoming so cheap, the musicteller can connect to the record label’s archive and provide access to the entire catalog, not just the top selling CDs. Since a Music Store relies on volume, making sure you ALWAYS have the CD your customer wants is a just good business.
On the other hand, there’s no reason to require the musicteller to be installed only in music stores. Not only could mass market shops have them, like Target or K-Mart, but every 7-11 in the country could have a machine that would create any CD ever recorded. If that were true, you might not make it to the CD Shop at the mall very often.
Why do music lovers want MusicTellers?
First of all is convenience, when they become ubiquitous, you will be able to fill up your MP3 player at any convenience store, department store, mall kiosk, airport or train station in the country. With shipping time essentially zero, the newest releases by the hottest artists will be available to the whole world instantly. If you’re looking at a long trip by air, maybe you’ll get the latest audiobook to listen to on the way. When you fill the car before your vacation, you might pick up a couple of kid’s music CDs to keep the little ones occupied.
Just as important as the convenience factor is the fact that a musicteller will have access to far more music than even the largest CD Shop. In the past, music was a mass market business. Now, the market is highly fragmented. In essence, even though everybody bought Beatles Records back then, not everyone buys Madonna CDs today. Some want classic rock, others want classical music. While some people enjoy Celtic Harps, other people listen to heavy metal. If a CD doesn’t sell a specific number copies per year, the shop can’t afford the shelf space to carry it. With a musicteller, even CDs that sold only a few copies nationwide would be worth the ‘shelf space’.
Finally three’s the simplicity factor. While not everyone has ripped a CD, or downloaded MP3 files and then burned a CD or loaded an MP3 player everybody has used an ATM. With a musicteller the hard work is all done for you. Just plug in your credit card, pick a few songs and out pops a custom CD just for you.
Why don’t MusicTellers exist yet?
First of all, the network is just barely ready. It’s only been in the last year or two that we’ve had networks and storage that could handle that kind of access.
More importantly, in order for a musicteller to be really useful it needs to have access to a large catalog. It needs access to the catalogs of most, if not all, the record companies. And getting them to play nice together is hard. Figuring out consumer’s rights in various countries is also very complicated.
Bottom line on why we don’t have a musictellers: the technology is there, but the legal aspects are still under development.
