I have seen the future, and it is in small chunks
February 14th, 2008 by misterarthurYou could argue that iTunes is destroying the music business, because the records labels’ business models were built on selling you pieces of plastic with 15 songs on them. But iTunes lets you buy the song (or chunk) you want, and only the chunk you want, for 99 cents. Makes sense, especially because most of the rest of the songs on the “albums” are dreck, anyway. And I’d guess it’s working, given the number of chunks Apple has sold. The New York Times announced today that it was cutting 100 newsroom jobs. Sure, management blamed the loss of advertising revenue. But really, isn’t that also because of the way we consume news these days? On my news aggregator(s), I only read the chunks I want. So, why should I pay for the parts of the newspaper I don’t?
What about TV networks? The only chunk of Fox I want is House. The rest of the network is meaningless to me. What’s the value of the rest of the network schedule?
If you want a new television, do you want to wade through the whole Sony web site to look for the one you want? Right now the home page invites you to check out Sony GPS units, watch such hot films as “A Raisin in the Sun” (honest), listen to “Thriller” (Yow! That’s happening), play an unnamed video game, and save on “Vaio entertainment bundles”. I only want a chunk of the Sony web site, so make it easy for me to get the chunk I want.
If you realize that people want chunks of what you have to offer, you can design your services to offer them exactly that.
More importantly, if your business model relies on a suite of services to make money, perhaps you need to get ready for what will happen when a competitor offers your customers only the chunk or chunks, they want.
Tags: Business Models., Chunks, Web Planning
February 15th, 2008 at 8:11 am
Cool thoughts. Makes you really wonder how much longer you’ll actually depend on traditional TV network for content delivery. For the average viewer, I think the UI and video quality has a little more work to do — but for the more digital/wired-centric it’s gotta be really close. I don’t know the economics, but let’s say LOST was only distributed via OnDemand, iTunes or LOST.com — sold advertising in show like they do now, what’s the financial gain or loss? Probably too lofty now, but wouldn’t be suprised if that’s the reality in the mid-term. As far as music, the recording industry will continue to struggle in the iTunes driven market until it gets rid of “filler tracks” and forces its artists to make 12 great songs, not just 2. Cool post.
February 18th, 2008 at 10:20 am
I would have preferred this post in bulleted chunks.
Kidding.
This is a thought-provoking observation, and I see everything getting sliced into chunks, into self-serviceable-sized trays in the media buffet.
It’s an ADD planet.
February 18th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I totally agree. Tivo-ing shows does not merely do the job. I really want to see episode 3 of season 2 of Greys Anatomy. And I just want to see it because I missed it and I overheard someone talking about it. I don’t want to buy the complete season. I don’t want to keep it all my life.
About the music, its too much work to go to a store, buy a CD, import it on my i-tunes and update my i-pod. My life is about removing the extra steps. Why not buy the album online on i-tunes - no wasting time on importing/ making sure its i-tunes compatible etc. Also good when I hear one song on the radio, go home, google, get it.
Chunks it is.