The Danger of Digital Media Ecosystems: Monopoly
WARNING: I’ll be ranting way too much about things most consumers don’t care about. Yet.
As Smart TVs become a thing instead of a fad and everyone who does not have one resorts to a streaming box/stick, the issue of Digital Media Ecosystems (which to save my fingers will be referred to as DMEs for the rest of this article) will be put front and center. Because let’s face it: Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, the members of Ultraviolet, and whatever other companies exist in the DME world are not going to play nice and allow you or me to watch anything purchased on any one of their services to be playable on another. At least, if they will someday do this, it’s going to have to be pushed by a media behemoth (case in point, Disney’s Movies Anywhere, which unfortunately is limited to only their movies). And last time I checked, Viacom and Universal seem to be doing just fine.
As much as the world hates Viacom, they are doing pretty well for themselves.
So, if the companies don’t give a hoot about making DMEs easier to access, that leaves us with my current situation, which I’ll use as an example. See, I’ve obtained a ridiculous amount of free TV episodes from iTunes over the years (several weeks worth of TV, in fact), and I would like to watch most of it. The problem is, I would like to do so on my big-screened television instead of my big-screened iPhone. Solution? It seems like an Apple TV is perfect for me. It’s the only streaming apparatus with access to iTunes content, and since I have an iPhone, I can take advantage of special Apple device-based features like AirPlay.
OK… but what about the almost 200 movies I have on Ultraviolet?
Granted, there are only 139 ‘movies’ according to Vudu, but when counting TV, it gets even more complex! Yay! I do have a few on iTunes, but they thankfully aren’t the same films. What do I do? Well, an Apple TV would still fit, that is if I used my iPhone to stream the movies from an app like Vudu (which allows access to my Ultraviolet library) to the TV using AirPlay. Okay, kind of awkward to have to have your phone daisy chained to the TV like that, but OK, I can live with that.
Music hoarder in the hiz-house.
Then comes the issue of my music collection. Though I do have some songs on iTunes, I keep that and about 9,000 more songs in my Google Play Music library. Is there any way to use the Apple TV to make this work? No. There is no way to make this work. So an Apple TV would be a good choice for my streaming needs 66% of the time. Provided I have my iPhone on hand as well. *sigh*
That’s not even putting into consideration my Amazon library, my Google Play TV library, my Groove Music/Microsoft Movies & TV libraries, and other services like Crackle and Rdio.
Though I could live perfectly well without Duck Dynasty.This is the dilemma facing any tech-literate person either now or soon, and so far, there seem to be no solutions to the problem. It’s essentially a game of keeping all your eggs in one basket to make yourself not go crazy. Or, to be perfectly honest, all the baskets besides Apple and Microsoft’s.
Because you could essentially live with Ultraviolet, Amazon, and Google Movies & TV, plus your Netflix, Hulu and whatever else, on a Roku, which is the most popular streaming box brand. (It is strange that Google isn’t putting music on Roku, though — even Amazon did that). But here’s the thing — iTunes’ revenue is currently at more than 5 BILLION dollars — granted, most of it is probably app sales, but if Google Play, according to this graph I found on Variety is making 6 billion, and has almost 80% of the smartphone market compared to Apple’s 20%, then there is a major discrepancy. And that is because iTunes must be making a lot of money on its own, not including app revenue.
My point is that Apple’s & Amazon’s & Google’s & Microsoft’s ecosystems make it really difficult for many people to access all their media in one place — and with smart TVs becoming more and more common, the fight will be on that retail space to lure buyers into buying boxes for respective ecosystems rather than making it easy for the consumer in the end. Because there is no reason to ever have DME monogamy — it prevents you from getting the best deals, locks you into hardware and out of exclusives, and makes it harder to leave once you’re already there. So Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon — stop expecting me to only buy media through one of your services. Disney? Make more of whatever drug you used to make these companies work together. (“Millions of dollars and threats to leave and sue! Got it!”) Roku? Keep doin’ what you’re doin’.
