Cloud Computing: Streaming Music, the Death of CDs, and the IT Impact
January 8, 2013
Grazed from WindowsIT Pro. Author: B. K. Winstead.
As we begin a new year, with all the self-reflection that often entails, I’m not afraid to admit my many addictions. Nothing illegal or immoral, of course: smartphone addiction, computer gaming addiction. But I’d say there are few things more important to me than music; I listen to music whenever I can, and I’ve always had an insatiable need for new music at every available opportunity. So I was a little disturbed when I saw a recent press pitch about cloud computing technologies heralding the death of the CD.
First of all, I’m all in favor of cloud music players. In the past year, I’ve become a devotee of Spotify in particular because it lets me choose the music I get to listen to, as opposed to Pandora and other services which provide only radio stations based on your tastes. With Spotify, I can choose a new album or artist and listen repeatedly, which lets me decide whether I want to spend money on that particular music. If I do choose to buy something, my first choice is still to get the CD…
Yes, I’m old school. I like the CD because it usually contains lyrics, sometimes liner notes or other track information, often some interesting artwork or artist pictures (at least from the bands I follow). Sure, I know most artists include this information on their websites these days. But the CD is also a high-quality hardcopy backup, even if you listen to your music digitally or through a cloud service. However, when I read the press pitch from Karl Volkman, CTO for SRV Network, I had to begin rethinking my approach to music: Maybe I’ve been doing it wrong…
Read more from the source @ http://www.windowsitpro.com/blog/cloud-computing-7/cloud-computing2/streaming-music-it-impact-145069