When I grew up, having a telephone in the kitchen and a TV in the living room was normal. It wasn’t what my parents had growing up, but to me it was a part of my how my world worked, and I didn’t think of it as special or different. In the same way, telling my son he lives in this on demand, connected world would be silly. 
For him, that’s just the way it is.
For him, life is digital…
Music and video can move with him everywhere, He has friends from around the world that he plays online games with, though he will likely never meet them physically, or talk to them outside of the game chat. Since he is young, I am very involved with everything he does online, but he clearly knows what he is doing. He can find what he wants by searching for it directly, or by networking with friends. He has grown up being connected to people, information, and media. And its what he wants and expects.
He is part of the first wave of kids that have never known a world without an internet…
While he is very comfortable in the digital world, he looks at the traditional ‘analog’ world as being broken - especially when it comes to media. He gets frustrated that you need to wait until a particular time to watch a TV show. If they made it already, why can’t you just click on a show in the on-screen guide and watch it? He prefers TIVO over straight TV since it lends a digital experience to an otherwise outdated service. It acts like a router between the analog and digital worlds.
He gets his music via downloads way more then through CD’s. And when he does get a CD, it isn’t something to be played - its like the ‘shipping container’ for the songs that he will just rip to iTunes. He considers playlists the real package.
And where does he find new music?…
On YouTube! He likes to watch these mashups of clips from various anime cartoons that people put together and set to to different songs. He comes to me several times a week asking me if he can get a particular song that he heard this way.
And why is he on YouTube?…
So he can watch episodes of an animated series “Naruto” that haven’t been released yet in the United States. They are produced and shown in Japan, and the series there is several seasons ahead of what is being shown here. Having it NOW outweighs the inferior quality he watches them in, and even the fact they are in Japanese with English subtitles. He thinks its great.
The media companies should open their eyes and face reality!…
My son and his generation are growing up fast. Whether they like it or not, this is where their market is moving. There is a huge opportunity here for media producers. They have more ways to reach people than they ever had before, and can deliver so much more digitally (at virtually zero incremental cost) than they could in an analog world. But they need to think differently about their businesses and how they can make money.
And they need to do it fast, because the market isn’t waiting for them to catch up…
If the only value they bring is to aggregate content, that train has already left the station - and they’re not on it. Aggregation is now the purview of the Google’s, YouTube’s, Yahoo’s and the like. And if they think the best solution is to hire more lawyers, they are in a death spiral and should pack it up now. Game over.
There’s a saying I remember that seems spot on for the media companies: “Lead, follow, or get out of the way”.
Those are the only choices they really have. ‘Preserving the status-quo’ just didn’t make the list…
0 Responses to “Ready Or Not, here They Come…”