Michael Janzen

OK… this is not news, but an excellent moment to mention that there is nothing that can permanently stop the flow of free music and information. I know the music industry and the millions of intellectual property owners worldwide will continue to fight to keep a price tag on their content creations but in the end, information wants to be free, and will be.

I’m still pissed at Apple for buying and crapping out Lala.com, a competitor. While in a search for more free music online my wife pointed out that I can listen to free music all day long on YouTube. Thanks Julia!

I’m not saying everyone should give up and give it away free today. Just saying that those that begin preparing for the day where their business models will need to adapt will be the ones to stay in business.

Apple Inc. bought the online music service Lala.com back in 2009 and now Apple is shutting down their former iTunes competitor. (see news story at WSJ)

This kind of thing makes me sick.

It’s also a good example of what can happen when a company gets too big and uses its strength to squash a rival. You see instead of competing with Lala.com, Apple choose to simply buy them and shut them down. I guess that’s one of the perks that come with success, you can eat your competitors.

But I shouldn’t complain too much, I’ve been a cheer leader for Apple since they were small and part of the real mechanism behind Apple’s growth. So we can’t really blame the giants for their size if we’re not ready to change our voting (spending) habits.

I for one will think twice before I take another bite of this bitter Apple… and Linux is looking more and more user friendly every day.

It’s really bothers me that Apple bought and is now killing Lala.com, a competitor to iTunes. The cool thing about Lala.com is/was that you could listen to the whole song once. I didn’t use it much until I heard that Apple is killing it. Now I’m using it as my internet radio until May 31, 2010… the day it goes to the virtual electric chair.

I hope Apple listens to this next comment.

One thing I’ve noticed myself doing is making a list of music to buy as I’ve been taking listening trips down memory lane. In other words, access to the full songs is inspiring me to buy music I used to listen to on the radio years ago.

I could rip off the songs using screen/sound capture software, which I have right here. But that’s not worth my time and I’m happy to pay for the real thing. I’m certain the fact that it’s so easy to rip songs from streaming audio is why iTunes and others only deliver short clips but I suspect there are millions more people like me that would rather not hassel with is and just buy the music.

So… like I said I’m just making a list and not rushing off to iTunes to pay for music (yet). Before I spend any more money at Apple (in effect voting for Apple’s f#$%ed up behavior) my plan is to look for another music source because I am so f$%&ing pissed at Apple for eating and sh&%ing out it’s competition.

WTF is Apple becoming the Monsanto of the tech world?

I guess the underlying problem is that as companies get really big they can forget their roots and fail to notice the power and responsibility that success comes with. I suspect Apple is now at this point and time for guys like me, who like supporting the little guy to jump ship.

(note to self: look for a really user friendly GUI for Linux I can run on my old Apple hardware.)