Notes On A Revolution

I have an iPod I rarely use since getting an iPhone. I used to carry two devices with me always, an iPod always playing, a phone I sometimes answered when I felt like it. Now I’m not given a choice - in more ways than one.

Aside from the music stopping if the phone rings, that iPod, all 80 gigs of it, had more music on it than I could ever really hope to listen to. But it also meant not having to make any choices about what I carried with me - not just because of its size but also because I could put music on it from any device. iPhones however don’t have that luxury - they commit you to one computer and one computer only. And in a modern age where access is increasingly key, that seems like a bizarre move to make.

Amazon have understood this notion of access and in a surprise move have beaten both Apple and Google to a music library offering that provides that access wherever you are. Apple have long been rumoured to be working on such a thing, while Google’s music offering hasn’t yet made it to vapor-ware status, but that can’t be far off.

Amazon of course have one final hurdle to jump - plans from mobile carriers that make streaming music constantly from the cloud an affordable reality. They’re unlikely to do that without handsets of their own, the idea of which has the tech press buzzing.

In closing the loop on the consumer journey, Amazon could be making an end-run around Google. “Thanks very much for the technology, but we understand the consumer.” The Seattle-based retail giant has so far failed to make a dent in Apple’s stranglehold on digital music sales. In delivering this service, they’ve finally arrived with a proposition Apple have no clear competitor to.

Not yet anyway.