posts

This is the third in a series of posts (following parts 1 and 2) speculating on Amazon’s rumored entry into the digital music market. In this post I discuss how Amazon might adapt eMusic’s subscription model to its own purposes. To repeat the disclaimer I made previously: This is all fevered speculation and nothing more; I do not have any inside information about a possible Amazon acquisition of eMusic, nor about other future plans of Amazon or eMusic. But enough of disclaimers, on with the wild guesses: ...

In my previous post I speculated how Amazon’s rumored entry into the digital music market (e.g., through a possible acquisition of eMusic) might initiate some changes in the way music is sold online. In this post I make some specific predictions about how Amazon might integrate digital music offerings into its current online store. To repeat the disclaimer I made previously: This is all fevered speculation and nothing more; I do not have any inside information about a possible Amazon acquisition of eMusic, nor about other future plans of Amazon or eMusic. However speculation is always fun, so let’s start imagining the Amazon music store of the future: ...

When considering the possibility of Amazon buying eMusic, one of the things I think is most interesting is the potential impact of having a single major online music store sell both CDs and DRM-free digital tracks in an integrated way, and how that might affect the way both CDs and digital tracks are sold and perceived. (Smaller services such as Magnatune have provided such a combined offering already; however, with all due respect they’re not Amazon, one of the top five music retailers. Also, both Wal-Mart and Best Buy sell both CDs and digital tracks online, but not in an integrated manner.) I’m also excited by the possibility of bringing Amazon’s many industry-leading features (reviews, recommendations, etc.) to the digital music market. Although the rumored Amazon/eMusic deal may never come off, it’s still fun to speculate how it might lead to new sales and pricing models in the music industry. ...

Well, I leave off blogging about eMusic for a month and look what happens: I happen to check Hypebot this evening and find that Amazon is rumored to be buying eMusic. eMusic’s CEO David Pakman recently denied rumors of eMusic being sold, so this may or may not prove to be just a rumor and nothing more. In the meantime that hasn’t stopped some people on the EMusic message boards and elsewhere from being concerned that this might be The End of eMusic As We Know It. However I think if it does occur such an acquisition could make good sense for both companies and might be to the ultimate benefit of eMusic subscribers, Amazon customers, and the music industry in general. ...

This is my report on activities of the Mozilla Foundation for the week ending March 30, 2007. Projects for the week Here’s a partial listing of what I and others at the Foundation did this past week: Grants and related activities. I attended and spoke at the G3ICT meeting on Monday, March 26, at the United Nations building in New York. I also considered some new requests for conference and travel sponsorships. Next action(s): Make more progress on the action items arising from CSUN and G3ICT. Do a blog post summarizing our accessibility-related efforts, as well as a brief meeting report on CSUN and G3ICT. CA certificates. For continuing coverage of CA-related issues the best place to turn to is now Gerv Markham’s status reports as posted on Gerv’s blog. (However I did work some with Gerv last week now that he’s turned from gathering data about CAs to evaluating their applications.) Next action(s): None at this time. IP/legal issues. I didn’t make much progress on the proposed corporate contributors agreement (bug 342029). Next action(s): Spend more time on getting the contributors agreement moved forward. Other. See also Gerv’s report for the week ending March 30. ...

This is my report on activities of the Mozilla Foundation for the week ending March 23, 2007. Projects for the week Here’s a partial listing of what I and others at the Foundation did this past week: Grants and related activities. My main activity for the week was attending the CSUN conference. The Mozilla Foundation had a booth in the CSUN exhibit area and also a separate room where we hosted meetings of developers working on Mozilla-related accessibility issues. Aaron Leventhal and others did a conference presentation on the “Mozilla accessibility ecosystem,” and we talked to lots of other people about Mozilla Foundation-sponsored work to support accessibility of dynamic web applications and related matters. It was great being able to talk to a number of people whose work we’ve funded; many thanks to those folks who helped out with the booth. Next action(s): Figure out all the action items arising from CSUN. Do a blog post summarizing our accessibility-related efforts. CA certificates. For continuing coverage of CA-related issues the best place to turn to is now Gerv Markham’s status reports as posted on Gerv’s blog. Next action(s): None at this time. IP/legal issues. Got another draft of the proposed corporate contributors agreement (as requested per bug 342029). Next action(s): Review the contributors agreement draft and get it published (schedule TBD). Other. See also Gerv’s report for the week ending March 23. ...

This is my report on activities of the Mozilla Foundation for the weeks ending March 9 and March 16, 2007. Projects for the week Here’s a partial listing of what I and others at the Foundation did these past two weeks: Grants and related activities. I continued preparations for the CSUN conference. I also presented to the Mozilla Foundation board an overview of the Foundation’s strategy on funding accessibility-related projects, along with a wish list for future funding. Next action(s): Attend CSUN, which I’m sure will generate lots of action items. Do a blog post summarizing our accessibility-related efforts. CA certificates. Gerv Markham has for the most part finished collecting information on CAs, and has published a list of pending CA requests; he’s now turned to evaluating the actual requests. Next action(s): Pretty much up to Gerv at this point. IP/legal issues. Gerv and I worked internally to review and make comments on counsel-generated drafts for a proposed corporate contributors agreement (as requested per bug 342029). Next action(s): Complete work on the contributors agreement draft and get it published. (Note that I don’t have a good estimate yet for when this will be done, as there are still some outstanding issues we need to work through). Other. Gerv is now publishing his own status reports; for more information see his report for the week ending March 16. ...

Due to lack of time I didn’t do a status report for this week; see the next status report for the week ending March 16, 2007.

This is my report on activities of the Mozilla Foundation for the week ending March 2, 2007. Projects for the week Here’s a partial listing of what I and others at the Foundation did this past week: Grants and related activities. I continued preparations for the CSUN conference, including making sure we have booth banners and signs, handouts, etc. Next action(s): Finish up CSUN stuff. CA certificates. Gerv Markham continued work on processing bugs for including CA certificates. Gerv and I also provided some feedback to the Mozilla Corporation on possible approaches to dealing with Extended Validation certificates. Next action(s): I need to work with Gerv to make sure we have bugs filed for all current requests from CAs. IP/legal issues. I worked on putting together a draft Mozilla corporate contributors agreement suitable for public review (bug 342029). Next action(s): Complete work on the contributors agreement draft and get it published. Other. Gerv is now publishing his own status reports; for more information see his report for the week ending March 2. ...

I recently read Seth Godin’s book Small is the New Big—basically a collection of his blog posts published on dead trees. (I checked it out from the library, saving both my pocketbook and the environment.) One of the posts I found interesting highlighted the concept of the “free prize,” i.e., that little something extra you get from certain products and services: The Free Prize is the experience of service at the Ritz Carlton, when what you paid for was a good night’s sleep. The Free Prize is the change counting machine at Commerce Bank, when what you needed was a checking account. The Free Prize is the line at Al Yaganeh’s soup stand, when what you came for was the soup. . . . ...