Author: Pearl L

via newyorker.com

Sasha Frere-Jones remarks on the future of music and cloud computing.

An album “collection” is no longer relevant for many listeners. Limited only by the number of songs offered by any service—MOG offers nearly eight million—they can create as many playlists as they like, and access them from almost any device. Whoever comes up with the most powerful and elegant version of the streaming model will have a very big portal. If iTunes becomes a dominant radio force, it could control an overwhelming portion of the music business. Google owns YouTube, which already serves as a sort of ad-hoc radio station for many young people. If Google’s streaming service works well with its Android applications and creates a music-bundling system, it, too, could take over a large share of the market.

I got a little taste of cloud computing radio bliss with Lala, which got shut down at the end of last month. I loved being able to access my collection of music from anywhere, and I loved the curated playlists (both listening to and creating my own to share).

Here’s hoping we get something good. blip.fm, i love you, but you’re bringing me down, cuz I want something more.