The Word is .....

... streaming. Why? I read two things yesterday, both of which could have a massive impact on our CD ripping business and the way people access music. First, there's a rumour that Apple will soon scrap (or "discontinue") the iPod Classic. This has been the stalwart of the range for years, and it's the device most of our clients use. My prediction has been that it would be upgraded with flash memory to replace that revolving hard drive. Greater capacity, lighter, longer battery life, more reliable. Seems that's not to happen. Second, Amazon launched their iPad alternative, the Fire. It has a new browser called Silk which is incredibly clever. Amazon are pitching this as the device through which you can access all your media (music, photos, films, TV shows) which would be stored on Amazon's massive computing platform. No, not your PC or Mac, not using a sync function such as iTunes. It would all be stored in the cloud. So it just occurred to me that the replacement for the iPod Classic would be a device which would facilitate access to music, films, videos and photos; all of which is held somewhere else. Of course Apple have already announced where that place will be, it will be their implementation of cloud computing. In the case of Amazon and (if it happens) Apple your music and other 'stuff' will arrive via a constant on line delivery mechanism. Streaming.