Sonos: An alternative music distribution system

The future of music is uncertain. Most uncertain is the how music will be distributed to consumer in the future. Currently CDs are on a major decline and digital download purchases and mobile purchases are on the upswing. However, given all the complicated rights management systems competing, the consumer experience is a frustrating one at best. Apple iTunes seems the do the best job at the moment based on sales. However, a compelling alternative is the combination of Sonos and Rhapsody. Sonos is a in home system that lets you wirelessly fill every room of your house with music. The subscription system means that for a small fee, you can listen to any and all songs on the Rhapsody home system. I think this is a great bargain and you are licensing music and only pay about $10 a month. That’s a real deal when you can listen all you want.

The only thing is how to get this system out of your house and into a ipod or similar portable system? When they can figure that out, then this system can really take off.

Take a look at reviews on Sonos at Business 2.0 and WSJ.

Digital Music Market in Asia

I was surprised to learn that digital music in Asia is as large of a market as here in this Variety article. But once I thought about it, it made sense. In China and Asia, teenagers in particular use their mobiles phone all the time. It’s part of their identity. The music they play on their phones as the ringback or ringtone is also something they change all the time. China mobile and the other service providers support their mobile music download service with a prominent advertising campaign.

So while CDs are mostly pirated here, the more you push mobile music here in Asia, the stronger the legitimate music market will become. So it seems to me that Apple should be pushing their iphone very strongly in Asia. It makes sense as the killer app on the iphone is in fact the itunes software. And Asians, by far more than any other geographic population, download using mobile phones. According to this article, China accounts for 80% of the music download market. I would have thought South Korea or even Japan. But once again, I think the sheer population size makes China the default market leader.

I’d be interested to learn more about the mobile music download firms here in China and learning what opportunities exist. Anyone have related info to share?