Warning: Industry punditry ahead. Adjust your speed and headlamps. 

So, yesterday Apple expanded “iTunes Plus”, which removes the proprietary DRM use limitations on songs. It’s not a digital media industry game changer but rather a significant game accelerator and a net positive for Apple and iTunes, Pioneers and Songbird and the digital media ecosystem.

Non-DRM’d songs from the iTunes Store improves interoperability and portability for users switching away from iTunes. Amazon has been selling DRM free since Q3’07 so this is a step towards a la carte non-DRM song parity for Apple. However Amazon has made scant progress in  the market despite the non-DRM head-start because consumers value integration convenience over other factors including DRM hassle and  price combined. (And FWIW, the iTunes Store continues to sell DRM’d music videos, TV shows, movies and audiobooks.)

iTunes remains a closed ecosystem, stymying transactions between digital media consumers, service providers and device manufacturers. Like iTunes, Songbird’s value prop is a user’s control point for digital media. Like iTunes, Songbird supports DRM and non-DRM content. Unlike iTunes, Songbird is built to streamline third-party service integrations (e.g., Amazon, 7digital, Last.FM, etc.) and third-party device synchronization (e.g. Philips, Sony, Sandisk, etc.) into a consumer’s media player, which is key to user utility and convenience that underpin customer satisfaction and willingness to recommend.

Apple’s done a great thing here by furthering the current thinking with respect to the digital media market past the real and imagined pitfalls of DRM’d content and to awareness of the emergent Internet digital media value chain — a segmented, multi-vendor, open market ecosystem of content producers, consumers, developers, service providers and device makers.  

The industry just lurched towards the inevitable.

Chirps,
Rob

We, Pioneers of the Inevitable, are hiring passionate, talented people to join our bustling team of bird builders.  Check the updated jobs page for Mozilla engineer, product manager, visual designer, interaction designer and front-end Web developer listings.

Chirp!

You have been blogging Songbird’s Beta launch, providing community feedback, often supporting each other, reporting technical issues, and twittering your Songbird critiques and delights.

From the sb_core developer to the add-on hacker to the blog reviewer, you make Songbird rock!

Now that you’ve had a chance to try Songbird 0.6, here’s a view to the road ahead.

Today we are launching the Songbird Release Roadmap. Behold the next three Songbird release codenames and themes:

• Fugazi: Improve performance and focus on usability.
• Genesis: Continue to improve performance and add features consumers expect in a music player.
• Hall: Integrate Web services.

The roadmap has deep links to feature specifications, Bugzilla implementation tracking and your feedback powered by GetSatisfaction. We’ll continuously update the roadmap with the most current planned features, specifications, release dates and more.

Please have look and give us a chirp. We’re listening.

RIA (the acronym) has jumped the shark. I find that I can no longer use RIA to describe anything anymore. The definition has been watered down and twisted to the point that nearly any application can be called RIA.

I agree. Finkle names names of Adobe and Microsoft software evangelists pushing proprietary app frameworks that have obfuscated the meaning of RIA and, in their wake, the user-centric, community-directed utility promise of the RIA class.

However, I don’t follow Mark’s conclusion to retire the term RIA. The term has currency and fluency; Let’s re-appropriate, replenish and sharpen it. With a new definition, Firefox, Thunderbird and Songbird are practical and aspirational leaders of the RIA class.

The key is to emphasize the I in RIA. The Internet is global network of community-centric client-server systems including the Web, email, DNS, etc. An RIA implements the client-side of at least one of these Internet systems.

Also, the R in RIA should be measured by “richness” found in exemplary IAs, Firefox first among them. The metric is user utility and community adoption of the client. Firefox’s open source, vibrant community, Open Web manifesto, widespread adoption and 5,000+ community-contributed add-ons establish a very high “richness” bar.

With this definition it’s easy to discern the real RIAs from the wishful: RIAs implement the client-side of Internet methods, formats and protocols. In the Web client-server system, RIAs are better known as user-agents or Web browsers. In the email client-server sytem, RIAs are better known as email clients.

By this definition, is Twirl, a useful desktop app for Twitter built from Adobe AIR, a RIA? No, it’s a proprietary app, platform and service integration. However, if someone built an desktop IM-like client from the open source Mozilla stack that posted your Twitter-like status to your OpenID via Attribute Exchange and thus accessible to all Twitter-like status tracking services like Twitter — that would be a really cool RIA.

Your comments are welcomed!

My comment was that Mozilla Firefox browser gained market-share at the expense Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Firefox’s early success was propelled by its open source, open standards and Open Web approach, while Microsoft Internet Explorer’s proprietary, single vendor solution stagnated. Duh. =)

Thanks to Paul Kim at the Mozilla Foundation for catching it.

Rob

“Yarbles, great bolshy yarblockos to you!”

Droogs and malchicks, come celebrate the launch of Songbird 0.3 with us! We’re co-hosting a real horrorshow party with the hooligans at Get Satisfaction!

Kubrick & Cupcakes: A Satisfaction Appreciation/Songbird 0.3 Party

• Thursday Nov. 15 7pm-1am
• Terra SF 511 Harrison St. 2nd floor San Francisco, CA 94105. Map
• RSVP: Facebook and Upcoming.org

And bit of the ol’ ultra-violence:
• DJ Aus
• DJ Deckard
• DJ Jive
• MC Fossil Fool, SF bike rapper for real

All-white dress, false eyelashes, and fancy bowler hats strongly encouraged.

Special thanks to Mike Linksvayer of Creative Commons for first an overview of CC’s lawyer- and machine-readable Some Rights Reserved licenses, services and software followed by a compelling State of the Union update of music on the Web. I’ll link to his slides as soon as they’re posted.

Mike also mentioned that Creative Commons is fundraising and offering a limited edition, smirk-worthy tshirt:

Also my thanks to Tara and crew from Citizen Agency for driving this and future Media Web Meet-ups. Thanks to our operations crew Sharon and Marion for producing another flawless event!

As mentioned, a supporting OpenMediaWeb.org web site is forthcoming. I’ll blog its launch.

chirps,
Rob

Birdwatchers,

Big news! Today Songbird shows some wing, shows some leg and leaps media players into the next era of innovation.

Today, Pioneers of the Inevitable launches Songbird 0.3 “Developer Pre-release”, also know by its codename Bowie, available here at Songbirdnest.com. So much to say. Let’s get started.

Songbird Webpage API

If you’ve tried previous Songbird releases, you know that Songbird is a desktop media player mashed-up with the Web. Now the tables are turned: Web developers can mash-up their websites with a desktop media player. Songbird’s Webpage API makes media player features accessible to the webpage author, collapsing the barrier between media player and website.

Early feedback from Webpage API implementors including indie music store Insound.com and music blog aggregator HypeMachine is that the integration is easy and that they anticipate their users will prefer a simpler, more integrated player-Web experience.

Starting today, Songbird is open to download stores, subscription services, radio services, social networking services, recommendation services, locker services, music blogs and other digital media services a crafty Web developer may devise.

Songbird Add-on API

Songbird 0.3 also lands documented, supported APIs for add-on developers. Firefox extension and Winamp plug-in developers should check it out. Like Firefox Add-ons, Songbird Add-ons are simply mark-up and Javascript in a zip file. Like Firefox, Songbird notifies users when a fresh add-on update is available, keeping the love alive.

Update: Greasemonkey and mashTape add-ons just released for Songbird 0.3 and kick ass.

Songbird Feathers API

Songbird’s Feathers have been meticulously preened, making it easier than ever for visual designers to customize Songbird’s appearance and share their own feathers with other ‘birders. Styling Songbird’s Feathers and webpages both use CSS, so visual designers can extend their Web design expertise to Songbird Feathers.

Update: The Feathers Wizard walks visual designers through the steps of creating and sharing feathers. You’ll find “Create New Feathers” under the Songbird 0.3 Tools menu if you installed the Developer Tools Add-on. Also, check out iBird.

The Songbird Community is the Mozilla Community

Finally, I’d like to thank and recognize the exceptional work of the 20+ full-time Songbird product designers and developers here at Pioneers of the Inevitable and the 1,800+ Songbird community developers and QA volunteers who directly contributed to Songbird 0.3. You are rockstars.

Moreover, Songbird is built on the Mozilla platform, so we ‘birders give a pterodactyl squawk to the Mozilla community. Mozilla’s Chief Lizard Wrangler Mitchel Baker recently blogged that 10,000 Mozilla community developers contributed to Firefox 2 in 2006, that the Mozilla community has grown so much recently that its prepared to move “beyond sustainability.” This is extraordinary news for all Web surfers, and specifically the Mozilla community, Mozilla platform, Firefox and Songbird.

Enough for now. Please install 0.3, experiment with the Webpage API, try the Insound.com or HypeMachine integration, port your Firefox extension to Songbird or create feathers. Play the Web!

Chirps,
Rob Lord