MusicGremlin Offers Wi-Fi MP3
On June 14, Chris Howard asked what people would like to see on their iPods. One reader suggested creating a Wi-Fi enabled iPod. That is exactly the kind of technology MusicGremlin is counting on to threaten Apple’s market share.
Many companies have claimed to threaten iPod/iTMS before. I’m not holding my breath until it actually looks like it’s going to happen. Yet MusicGremlin is one of the few that actually offers something different. The potential use of Wi-Fi for music downloads intrigues me.
I checked several places to learn more about MusicGremlin. Judging by the reviews, its first generation won’t be any real threat to iPod/iTMS. CNET News provided a thorough review. I’ll recap some of the features, as well as what works and what doesn’t.
With MusicGremlin, the wireless feature only works for downloading from its site. You can download from other music sites, but you’ll need your computer to do that. MusicGremlin’s download service is like most other subscription services. You can download unlimited music for a monthly fee, but you’ll lose it all if you cancel your subscription or purchase tracks individually. MusicGremlin offers 2 million tracks.
The reviewer at CNET enjoyed having the ability to skip the computer and download whenever he wanted to. Or maybe I should say that he could download whenever he wanted as long as there was a connection available. Sometimes it’s difficult to locate a hotspot. The CNET writer thinks that will change, but others suggest that more and more individuals will secure their home settings. Businesses are already beginning to do that. You can, of course, use your home network. Though one of the advantages of the MusicGremlin is to be able to download when you’re not at home, it’s nice to know you don’t always have to logon to your computer to download.
The reviewer at CNET thought the sound quality was good. A few design drawbacks are that you won’t find a repeat function or an equalizer on the MusicGremlin. If you’re in shuffle mode, there is nothing to indicate it.
Battery life is limited. You can play your music for a little over ten hours. Downloading will give you about two hours of battery time.
The MusicGremlin holds 8GB of music. It costs $299.
Some people will like the file sharing features of this MP3. You can connect to other users to browse their libraries, and subscribers can send music to each other legally.
The MusicGremlin downloads at a rate of 128Kbps. To give you an idea of what this means in real time, CNET found that it took 22 minutes and 44 seconds to download a 10-song album. The reviewer didn’t report on the total minutes of music recorded on the album. I am guessing that he used a standard-length CD.
One nice feature for travelers is a small internal speaker. You can hear music faintly without speakers. According to CNET, the company plans to add a sleep timer soon.
Overall, MusicGremlin seems to be an idea worth developing. There are flaws, but any first generation system has flaws. The most common comment from readers at the various websites was that you can purchase an awful lot more memory for the $299 price tag if you purchase an iPod.
For now, the time doesn’t seem quite right for wireless, but I love the idea. I’d like to see iPod offer this as an option when it can be done without the flaws.
A reviewer at Wi-Fi Networking News suggests that Apple should just buy the firm. Personally, I like the creativity that MusicGremlin is showing. Most of the companies trying to grab some of iPod’s market share don’t really offer something different. This company does. In an “I want it instantly” society, MusicGremlin offers that opportunity (sometimes) to its users.
Then again, there is still a huge untapped market. Maybe companies should be looking for ways to encourage new users.
Readers responding to Chris Howard mostly seemed to like the iPod just the way it is. Does the addition of Wi-Fi sound like a good idea? Would you like to see it on your iPod once the flaws have been worked out? Or is this just another idea destined to fail?
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Comments
The struggle to find an edge continues… WiFi won’t do it. Most hotspots require you to pay to use them (airports, hotels etc) and most business and home networks are encrypted so the opportunity to “freeload” is limited, and getting more so.
To make an impression on the iPod, anything else has to have a significant “must buy” edge. WiFi isn’t it. And the product isn’t pretty…
Destined to sink without trace.
Apple have the edge, not just because they have so much market share, but because they got it right. The iPod phenomenon owes as much to the design decisions made by Apple as to the market brilliance in assembling the whole iTunes / iPod experience. Unless Apple become greedy or complacent, or are forced to open up the iPod/iTunes unique interoperability to others, any competing product is doomed to die.
Its called creating a “Barrier to Entry” into a market. You make it very expensive or very difficult, or both, for competitors to break into the market. Apple offers a complete solution, and a very good one. So a new competitor has to match or exceed what Apple offer in order to generate any interest at all.
Microsoft is probably the only competitor who could do this. They have the money and the clout, but they haven’t been very good at execution of late. And Apple have done such a good job of reading the market, that there is not much in the way of gaps for competitors to create even a niche…
There will be more products like Gremlin. The music companies are desperate to see Apple cut down to size. They want to control the marketing of their music - and before this can happen, they need several strong players in the market who will compete against each other.
Right now Apple are holding all the cards. And its my guess that this means the consumers are actually getting a better deal as a result of Apple’s stance, than they would if the music companies had control over the download market. Apple is definitely keeping the price of music down. I wonder if the Scandinavian consumer bodies understand that?
This is a bit of a stretch from the original topic, but hopefully an interesting point. What will Apple do next to keep the restless music companies in line? Could Apple produce their own music? Could Apple become a music publisher in its own right? Will musicians publish their music directly on iTunes without involving a music “label”? If I were a music producer I would be looking at the Apple steamroller and hoping like hell Apple doesn’t decide to eat my lunch…
Apple probably wouldn’t be able to use the Apple brand and name to do that I guess - unless they bought Apple records I guess…
“The iPod phenomenon owes as much to the design decisions made by Apple as to the market brilliance in assembling the whole iTunes / iPod experience.” -s^2
Yes, s^2, you hit the bull’s eye. Apple’s vertical model that you described may be the real model that will persist despite any moves by M$ in this space. Everything works so well together that once people buy iPods, they are hooked. It is that addictive. Humans’ perception of music is not a closed system for sure. There will be other options out there nibbling at the edges of the iPod ecosystem. What is the incentive of going iPod-less if I have an iPod now? I can afford a Zen or Sandisk media players just as anyone with an iPod. But, in the end, the market hold that Apple have will not wither in the current or future M$ offering.
What M$ needs to do is to license Fairplay <ouch!> and swear an oath to Steve to not modify it. Now, the playing field is leveled, everyone is kosher, Apple raking in big profits from royalties throughout cybersphere. Is this scenario even possible? To me it makes too much sense. Imagine, M$ kissing Steve’s a** everytime it sells a device carrying Fp.
“Microsoft is probably the only competitor who could do this.” -s^2
There is a rumour swirling around the cybersphere that M$ is about to offer a “complete” vertical media solution in the way of iTunes/iTMS/iPod integration. But one has to wonder, if M$ would introduce their own version of such “closed” system, where would the other licensees - Sony, Samsung, Creative, and others - do??? I have mentioned before, if you are a licensor you MUST not compete with your licensees because it will not work. I’m sure M$ understands this but since they are too envious of the iPod’s massive success, their executive leadership is amassing their cash horde to defend Windows’ status quo. They are so paranoid at everyone who has more market share than their own.
Notice how they are spending billions on M$N and *Live initiatives, without much dent in Google’s net influence? Yes, we should give those products enough time to mature to really determine their fates. But giving Google 2-5 more years of maturation and influence and you will end up with a colossus in cybershpere. Just what M$ is paranoidly trying to prevent.
“You can download unlimited music for a monthly fee, but you’ll lose it all if you cancel your subscription or purchase tracks individually. MusicGremlin offers 2 million tracks.”-J.M.
This is exactly a business model that Steve (at the moment) is adamantly opposed to. He is for “owning” the media and not tied to some imaginary leash that can be yanked in times of financial troubles? The first to go when you are in that situation are the small discretionary spendings - entertainment kinds mostly - such as movie rents, DVD/CD impulse purchases, hikes out-of-town, etc.
Some would argue the DRM embedded keeps you leashed to the iPod’s closed system. Does that hinder my ears’ capability to discern how good a singer Anrea Bocelli (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Bocelli) is? or how great a guitar player Slash (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash_(musician)) really is? The DRM Fairplay does not impede my auditory senses at all. Those who whine should sit down and console themselves that there is a way to export iTunes music to their beloved Zen or Sandisk players - they just need to get off their lazy bums and burn a DVD/CD MP3 playlists. I have done the same to a DVD-R to transport my 5G collection from a Mac-less laptop. It works! The multi-generational psycho acoustic loss is just hogwash. Your ears (by His design) can not discern the perceptual loss, if there are any from a good archival quality (160kbps or ^).
Back to the subject of this article. I like Gremlin’s initiative here. It may not work successfully due to their tie-ins as subscriptions and that has to be from their online music store. We can feel Apple is about to attack this same space with a rumoured wireless iPod. We’ll see how that will fare.
What is important here is that a company is trying to differentiate itself from the iPod system. They understand that the “barriers to entry”, as stephen pointed out, is insurmountable even for M$‘s billions let alone a tiny startup.