For many years, distributors and online vendors try to propose subscription models for online music. Most of them have failed for the following reasons:

1) Listening to music is free of charge
Turn on your radio, get free music. Turn on online, get online radio. If I just want to listen to music, I care less about the song quality then I do not want to pay. I tune in, listen, end of the story.

2) Music is not brand related
In very few cases you will buy a CD because it belongs to a specific label. Blunote is one of those examples. By proposing high quality artists on Jazz, they successfully managed to drive loyalty within their customers. However, you will not look at the label of the artist before you buy it. You will buy Seal or Alicia Keys, not because it is a Warner or Universal Music CD. When you purchase a CD in a retailer shop, imagine that you are being told, “Sorry, we only sell Virgin music here.” Unbelievable! This is unfortunately what is happening online where stores only propose some parts of the catalog.

3) Music is universal
Same point about the regions it is being sold. Once again, imagine you want to buy the latest CD from Seal in Singapore and you are told, “Oh, so sorry (sounds familiar…), we only sell it in Tokyo.” Well, this is again what is happening online when for example iTMS only available in some countries. Should you want to buy music legally online, this is a real pain in the neck.

4) You want to own music and listen to them whenever you want to
Should you download or buy a CD? People still listen to music multiple times, based on your mood. It should not be tied up to any contract.

This is the reason why I personally do not believe in the current subscription model where:
1) You pay a monthly fee to have a limited access to an artist catalog, which sometimes may be available in some regions only.
2) You pay a monthly fee to listen to the music but cannot transfer it to other devices.
3) Your content is linked to a monthly fee.. You stop paying – you have no more songs.

So, when we hear that Apple is about to launch a subscription model-based music I have mixed feelings. I am worried because of the above point. I am curious to see how they will crack it.

Let’s see and hope for the best.

To be honest, being a French is a mixed feeling. I am proud of my country; I like our landscapes, food and everything. I believe from a professional point-of-view our education system is quite effective and that we have a good way to analyze, solve problems and drive business.

BUT, there is a big BUT and today is one of them.

The French tend to complain a lot, defending their rights they took for granted fiercely instead of realizing how spoiled we might be sometimes. Strikes are regularly disrupting the economy and it is the top fear of any tourist visiting our lovely country.

The last thing : Stress. There are serious studies in France about how stressed the work environment could be, how difficult it is for us to survive under the pressure of a new management.

I agree, we all are stressed! But the key difference here in the rest of the world is that we cope with it!

Yes, it is true that we are more stressed, trying to cope with multitasking, emerging countries, more financial pressure, more competitors, more connectivity….and the list is long…. Technology does not help and remind us every second just how fast the world is turning.

After the 35 hours of work, are we going to see a new law to fight stress ?

I know the solution. Let me get the remote control – I will stop the world from spinning.

This seems to be my favorite topic of the month. After Toshiba dropped its HD DVD, casualties are starting to appear and to be counted.

The two main losers are Microsoft and Dreamworks.

In a recent article on Yahoo!, Dreamworks announced they were waiting for Toshiba to tell them what to do next. They have received a significant compensation for their support to HD DVD and are looking for the next steps. The bad news is that a movie like Bee Movie will not be released soon. The good news is that we finally will have Transformers on Blu Ray. As far as I am concerned, I will keep my HD DVD version until they release an ultimate collector edition… =)

What about the Matrix from Warner? One can bet it will be available soon as well on Blu Ray. However, retailers are currently slashing their prices of HD DVD and you might be able to get some good deals out of it. I would definitively go for them as the improvement in quality with regular DVD is good enough. On top of that, those movies will soon be considered as collectible with an increased market value.

The second loser is Microsoft whose HD DVD extension prices are cut by 60%. Again, this might be a good deal for you if you were considering starting to watch HD.

The safest bet of course is to keep your money and wait for the new Blu Ray players to come…

To be continued…