I ran across some quite interesting statistics about how iTunes users listen o their collections of songs. According to Music WithMe (a service which allows you to upload your collection into the cloud…sound familiar?), most users only access about 19% of their collections of music.
This is the sort of information which makes you stop and wonder about the real value (in the medium term) in uploading your music collections… Admittedly, Apple will negate having to upload the majority of popular music…but the other services don’t.
In any case, while this may seem like a tempest in a teapot (for many…), this little statistic does show a small chink in the armor of the cloud meme currently gaining momentum (yeah, I don’t like the metaphor that much either…).
I suspect that this may show up in time as a sense that the current cloud mania will only be a transitional phase in what may be a much larger (subscription driven) base of media (music, movies, books, and other media) which will ultimately become a ubiquitous consumer service…
I suspect that Netflix and kindred businesses with be pulled into this soon to come whirlwind too…
Average iTunes user never listens to 81% of music library
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/average-itunes-user-never-listens-to-81-of-music-library/49975
Web users have been frantically uploading their music libraries in recent months with the launches of Amazon Cloud Player and Google Music Beta. Both services are storage lockers where users can upload their music files and then play them via a Web browser across multiple computers or devices, or with an Android app.
However, the wisdom of that approach is being called into question by new data released by Music WithMe, which takes a competing approach to managing a music library on a mobile device. Based on Music WithMe’s experience over the past three years in wirelessly syncing iTunes with BlackBerry and Android devices, it did some data crunching on its anonymous user data and determined that the average iTunes user only plays 19% of the music in her library.
That means most users never listen to over 80% of the music in their libraries. Sounds like an awful waste of space in the Google and Amazon clouds.
...chink in the armor of the cloud meme... ? What have you done to that poor, innocent metaphor. You've strangled it. That's wot! Seriously, though - here's the math for me, but I'm going to let you do it. Up until yesterday, I could carry up to 8 GB of my music with me, thus being able to listen to it. My entire collection of music is hovering just over 200 GB. (This excludes podcasts and Old Time Radio shows...so just music.) It will be interesting to see what Apple does with the numbers they gather from the iCloud users. These numbers must mean a lot...to someone.
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