Tired of iTunes? Not liking the Amazon platform? The one thing we don’t lack is many ways to get the same thing we want. Both platforms along with a few lesser known platforms offer ways to acquire digital content. Music, movies, TV shows, all downloadable from these platforms, but the one “ring” to rule them all thus far has been Apple’s dominating iTunes store.
If you’ve been looking for an opportunity to disconnect from Apple, perhaps Sony has the option for you. It’s been rumored recently that an announcement could come, as early as tomorrow according to a post on 1up.com, on an iTunes competitor from Sony would be released on the PS3 and PSP devices, to be followed by other products in Sony’s lineup. According to the article, a reliable source from the Financial Times, states that the service will be subscription based and offer music and movies. The announcement is rumored to be made at IFA Berlin this week.
PS3 owners are already familiar with ordering and renting films from the Playstation Store, but a dedicated service across multiple platforms including their Bravia TV lines could be the next big thing to compete with Apple. The report states that while the service will be announced, it actually won’t be available until next year.
Can Sony do it? There no doubt iTunes has become the norm for many of us, but I’d like to think there’s a fighting chance for Sony in all this. Leave your comments below on whether you think this service has a chance on Sony’s products.
While terrestial radio has suffered severe losses in listenership, satellite radio and applications like Pandora and Slacker have been on the rise. The transition was bound to happen as listeners sought after a la carte style music that played exactly what they wanted. The ability to make your own stations is the next step in this hierarchy of listener ownership of the digital airwaves.
So where does terrestial radio stand these days? Radio stations still maintain an online presence, now offering their streaming content direct from the website. So while advertisers begin to shift with the transition, radio struggles to stay relevant these days as the primary source of information, entertainment and our favorite music.
It was years ago that I was introduced to a little application called Earthtuner. I think it was around 1997 when I came across this application that allowed me to find radio stations from around the world. I remember this clearly because I loved listening to stations directly streamed over the computer from other countries. In the days before iTunes, music apps, and stations with stream content there was Earthtuner, my virtual connector to anything I wanted from around the world.
More recently there is a similar application called Antenna that runs on the Adobe Air platform and offers up similar services to Earthtuner. The application allows users to search a database or interactive map of thousands of stations. User will be able to search by country, genre, or by clicking on any area on the map. Leave ratings for other users as you browse the most popular stations that others have recommended for you.
Do apps like this make terrestial radio interesting again?
Antenna allows you to stream stations from around the world.
There’s a lot of us out there who have cut the cable bill for the open, a al carte world of streaming digital media. Most of us are consuming content on sites like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, or any other site providing quality content for the end user. Whether it’s music, video, or photos, streaming media seems to be the way of the future. And while there are other competitors out there, one seems to stand heads and shoulders above the rest…the key word being “seems.”
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