An idea for iTunes Music Store streaming internet radio + purchasing
I had an idea while I was listening to various 30 second clips in the Music Store.
I wished that I could have each play automatically one after the other so I could listen in and buy the ones that interested me. I think they disabled this feature so as to not have people waste bandwidth by leaving it on. (I'm pretty sure you can fake this with Applescript though)
Internet radio is interesting, but I haven't used it much. One of the downsides to internet radio and normal radio broadcasting for me is that I never really know what they are playing.
What if Apple made several different streaming channels you could tune in to (probably a different channel for each genre) and then added the ability to purchase/find the currently playing song in the iTunes Music Store(!) This way you would have instant access to all of the information Apple has on the artist, their albums, their website and so forth. It would be a perfect internet radio station.
How does internet radio work economically? I imagine they get money from advertisments... Advertisments may not be needed for this Apple Radio idea because the songs themselves are advertisments. The radio channels would be supported by people buying the songs that they are exposed to. I know that when I am in the car listening to the radio I never remember what a song is called. Sometimes I hear a song I like and would buy them right when I heard it if I could. Apple could leverage their ability for "instant gratification".
To make Apple Radio work economically they have options. They could leave off, or play more rarely the very popular artists that everyone knows about. The reason why is that people would just tune in to hear them. Apple would prefer them to just buy the song. (The whole idea behind the Apple Radio idea is that people would buy certain music if they knew it existed and had the opportunity to buy it the moment they thought "hey, that sounds pretty cool")
If they worry about people ripping directly from the stream they could do something similar to what radio stations do (but tastefully). They could do fades into the next song while there are still 5 or 10 seconds left. That way people can hear the whole song and get an idea if they want to "take it home with them", while still leaving people with a reason to buy the song.
I wished that I could have each play automatically one after the other so I could listen in and buy the ones that interested me. I think they disabled this feature so as to not have people waste bandwidth by leaving it on. (I'm pretty sure you can fake this with Applescript though)
Internet radio is interesting, but I haven't used it much. One of the downsides to internet radio and normal radio broadcasting for me is that I never really know what they are playing.
What if Apple made several different streaming channels you could tune in to (probably a different channel for each genre) and then added the ability to purchase/find the currently playing song in the iTunes Music Store(!) This way you would have instant access to all of the information Apple has on the artist, their albums, their website and so forth. It would be a perfect internet radio station.
How does internet radio work economically? I imagine they get money from advertisments... Advertisments may not be needed for this Apple Radio idea because the songs themselves are advertisments. The radio channels would be supported by people buying the songs that they are exposed to. I know that when I am in the car listening to the radio I never remember what a song is called. Sometimes I hear a song I like and would buy them right when I heard it if I could. Apple could leverage their ability for "instant gratification".
To make Apple Radio work economically they have options. They could leave off, or play more rarely the very popular artists that everyone knows about. The reason why is that people would just tune in to hear them. Apple would prefer them to just buy the song. (The whole idea behind the Apple Radio idea is that people would buy certain music if they knew it existed and had the opportunity to buy it the moment they thought "hey, that sounds pretty cool")
If they worry about people ripping directly from the stream they could do something similar to what radio stations do (but tastefully). They could do fades into the next song while there are still 5 or 10 seconds left. That way people can hear the whole song and get an idea if they want to "take it home with them", while still leaving people with a reason to buy the song.