aubuti wrote: > First, where do you get the idea they don't want MOG's user base? I > think they may have migrated MOG users' playlists to Beats although I'm > not sure about that. I am sure that they offered the first month of > Beats free to MOG users. And Beats is available on Sonos and on the web. > SB just didn't make the cut -- they didn't want SB users enough to > invest a little bit of effort in transitioning the plugin/API to SB. > > Where Beats is departing from the MOG model, which fits in completely > with the Apple acquisition (as garym notes), is the emphasis on > streaming over wireless phone networks, as opposed to wifi. > > It's sometimes tough to figure out what the real purpose of acquisitions > are. Buying music rights, obscure intellectual property rights or > patents, squashing a potential competitor, positioning the company to be > acquired by someone else, or sheer misunderstanding of what they're > buying.
Although I have nothing but anecdotal evidence, I'm convinced that the entire market of "networked music streaming devices" is a tiny minority of the market and basically ignored. The big players think of streaming music via smart phone, tablets, and computers themselves (and *maybe* an "app" on a smart TV for pandora or spotify). The person like many of us, with dedicated "network music players" (e.g., squeezeboxes) is the exception rather than the rule. The little bit of thought given to us (with apps, plugins, APIs, etc.) is minimal. Even Sonos, which seems to be the remaining big player in network streaming devices, can't seem to get the attention of the big players in a good way. The sonos forums are full of complaints about their Spotify app not having all the bells and whistles, being abandoned, etc. I see the same thing in contacting radio stations that stream. They are focused on a web-embedded player on a webpage but totally clueless about a streamable URL for the rest of us. The best they can say is, "oh, if you're away from your computer we have an smart phone app that will let you stream to your phone." p.s. somewhat off topic, but thinking of an ignored group: A friend's CD player died. He went to the local Best Buy (which is a large full service Best Buy) to buy a replacement CD player (deck) for his system. They reported that they had NO CD players in the store. One 20 year old sales person actually said, "why would you need a CD player" (not that I disagree, but mine is a different reason....he was thinking about spotify, beats, google music, grooveshark, etc.). But the 40-something manager said to my friend, hey wait a second we might have something. He appeared from the back storage area with a Sony CD player in a box and said, "hey we had this one left back in the back, do you want to buy it? We'll sell it cheap". *Location 1:* VortexBox 4TB (2.3) > LMS 7.8 > Transporter, Touch, Boom, Radio w/Battery (all ethernet except Radio) *Location 2:* VBA 3TB (2.3) > LMS 7.8 > Touch > Benchmark DAC I, Boom, Radio w/Battery (all ethernet except Radio) *Office:* Win7(64) > LMS 7.8 > Squeezelite *Spares:* VBA 4TB, SB3, Touch (3), Radio (3), CONTROLLER *Controllers:* iPhone4S & iPad2 (iPeng7 & Squeezepad), CONTROLLER, or SqueezePlay 7.8 on Win7(64) laptop Ripping (FLAC) - dbpoweramp, Tagging - mp3tag, Streaming - Spotify ------------------------------------------------------------------------ garym's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=17325 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=101850 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
