(no subject)
an open letter to XM and Sirius satellite radio providers.
Dear XM and Sirius:
I don't know a single person who is a subscriber to your service. Not one. I believe this would be the consensus of most, if not all, of everyone i know as well. The main reason for this is that the idea of radio is dead. Sure, some people still listen to the radio over the airwaves. Why? Because it's free. No one in their right mind is going to pay for streaming radio, when you can get it for free over the internet with iTunes, and over the airwaves from local radio stations. With the upcoming emergence of HD-Radio, which offers free, CD quality radio from the same local over-the-air providers, you guys are really screwed. The bottom line is this: no matter how many channels you have, and no matter what bit rate you set your quality to, you are not going to sell an age-old obsolete idea to the average public (excluding, of course, those that buy everything just because they can).
So here's my proposal. Before reading, you acknowledge that you will give me 10% stock in your company, with an exit strategy at my discretion, and you will pay dividends each quarter on all profits made. Now, I want you to look at 3 highly successful technologies/products: TiVo, the iPod and podcasting, and On Demand content from cable providers. TiVo allows you to pause, rewind, fast forward, and archive live content. The iPod allows you to transfer music (not live music, mind you) to a portable device and listen to it anywhere, and podcasting allows you to subscribe to a channel you like and download entire radio programs to your ipod and play them back at your discretion. On Demand services from cable providers allow you to choose what you want to watch, and you can watch it immediately, as well as pause, rewind, fast forward, and archive.
If you don't see the possibility here, i'd like you to now ask your secretary to beat you on the head with a large blunt object, but not so much as to remove your ability to read this letter. If you would add pause/rewind/fast forward/archive capability, scheduled recording capability, downloadable radio programs, and on-demand programs, you would have a highly successful product, and i would buy one and recommend it to all my friends. Why? Because in the broadband internet world we live in, we don't like to wait. I don't like having to wait for the right hour for All Things Considered to come on NPR public news so I can hear Robert Siegel's gaudy radio-friendly voice tell me about news around the world. I don't like having to wait for that! The 3 products mentioned above would have significant effect on my listening habits. With a TiVo like service, when I go through a drive-through fast food joint, i can press pause, order my food, and not miss anything when i continue driving. With a podcasting like service, I could subscribe to an NPR station, and whenever i get in my car or turn on my satellite radio device at home, it would download automatically all episodes of NPR to catch me up. With an On Demand service, i could, through a menu, choose All Things Considered and listen whenever i want, without having to subscribe (although i would...).
You have a serious opportunity on your hands. I hope you listen to me. You can mail the stock certificates to the return address.
Sincerely,
Paul Irwin
an NPR convert
Dear XM and Sirius:
I don't know a single person who is a subscriber to your service. Not one. I believe this would be the consensus of most, if not all, of everyone i know as well. The main reason for this is that the idea of radio is dead. Sure, some people still listen to the radio over the airwaves. Why? Because it's free. No one in their right mind is going to pay for streaming radio, when you can get it for free over the internet with iTunes, and over the airwaves from local radio stations. With the upcoming emergence of HD-Radio, which offers free, CD quality radio from the same local over-the-air providers, you guys are really screwed. The bottom line is this: no matter how many channels you have, and no matter what bit rate you set your quality to, you are not going to sell an age-old obsolete idea to the average public (excluding, of course, those that buy everything just because they can).
So here's my proposal. Before reading, you acknowledge that you will give me 10% stock in your company, with an exit strategy at my discretion, and you will pay dividends each quarter on all profits made. Now, I want you to look at 3 highly successful technologies/products: TiVo, the iPod and podcasting, and On Demand content from cable providers. TiVo allows you to pause, rewind, fast forward, and archive live content. The iPod allows you to transfer music (not live music, mind you) to a portable device and listen to it anywhere, and podcasting allows you to subscribe to a channel you like and download entire radio programs to your ipod and play them back at your discretion. On Demand services from cable providers allow you to choose what you want to watch, and you can watch it immediately, as well as pause, rewind, fast forward, and archive.
If you don't see the possibility here, i'd like you to now ask your secretary to beat you on the head with a large blunt object, but not so much as to remove your ability to read this letter. If you would add pause/rewind/fast forward/archive capability, scheduled recording capability, downloadable radio programs, and on-demand programs, you would have a highly successful product, and i would buy one and recommend it to all my friends. Why? Because in the broadband internet world we live in, we don't like to wait. I don't like having to wait for the right hour for All Things Considered to come on NPR public news so I can hear Robert Siegel's gaudy radio-friendly voice tell me about news around the world. I don't like having to wait for that! The 3 products mentioned above would have significant effect on my listening habits. With a TiVo like service, when I go through a drive-through fast food joint, i can press pause, order my food, and not miss anything when i continue driving. With a podcasting like service, I could subscribe to an NPR station, and whenever i get in my car or turn on my satellite radio device at home, it would download automatically all episodes of NPR to catch me up. With an On Demand service, i could, through a menu, choose All Things Considered and listen whenever i want, without having to subscribe (although i would...).
You have a serious opportunity on your hands. I hope you listen to me. You can mail the stock certificates to the return address.
Sincerely,
Paul Irwin
an NPR convert