Working Smart

The Shift Toward Digital Continues

Still not convinced that the world is going digital? Today, USA Today ran a story about U.S. music album sales. Get this: 2005 album sales were down 7% from the previous year while digital downloads of music doubled!

The article goes on to note that this isn’t particularly bad news for recording companies, but “it doesn’t bode well for music retailers.” Why? Because digital downloads bypass them entirely.

As I pointed out in my first and second posts on the future of digital book publishing, I believe that the music industry, while different, is a harbinger of things to come in the book industry. Before you post a comment that “digital books will never replace traditional books, blah, blah, blah,” keep in mind that that’s not my argument. I am simply arguing that a shift will occur once the right device appears. Like it or not, digital books will take a slice of the pie.

If 5–10% of book sales go digital, it will have a significant impact on the industry. There will be winners and losers. The winners will be those companies who see digital books coming and prepare accordingly. The losers will be those who stick their head in the sand and refuse to acknowledge that the world is changing.

I didn’t spend any time in my previous posts about the impact on book retailers, but that is clearly something that needs to be addressed. Music retailers are already feeling the impact of digital music downloads. Book retailers are in a good position to begin thinking about this issue before the tsunami hits them.

Technorati Tags: books, ebooks, future, publishing, technology

iTunes 5.0: Not Quite Ready for Prime Time

This past week, Apple released iTunes 5.0. It boasts a streamlined look, the ability find stuff faster with the new search bar, and compatibility with the cool new iPod nano and the Motorola ROKR E1 cell phone.

Despite the hype from Apple, I strongly urge you not to upgrade to this new version. Wait for iTunes 5.1. This version of iTunes is slick, and the new search bar is way cool. But—and this is a BIG but—it has compatibility problems with standard iPods.

Technorati Tags: iPod, Apple, iTunes

I installed the upgrade on Thursday evening. When I connected my iPod, I got a message that iTunes could not transfer my purchased music to the iPod. It claimed that my iPod software was out of date, and I needed to update it, too. No problem, I thought. I then downloaded the latest iPod Software Updater, dated 2005-09-06.

First, the program did not launch an installer. I assumed this would happen once I downloaded the software. Instead, thanks to the Apple Discussions group (and about 20 minutes of wasted time), I discovered that I had to launch the software manually from my applications\utilities folder. Who knew?

Unfortunately, this didn’t solve the problem. The iPod Software Updater wouldn’t recognize my iPod was connected. I tried rebooting, using a different port—everything I could think of. Nothing worked. I could see the iPod connected in Finder and in iTunes, but the Updater couldn’t see it.

So, I spent another hour or so browsing the Apple Discussions groups. (See Connecting to a Mac.) I was somewhat comforted by the fact that I wasn’t the only one having problems. Scores of users reported similar problems. Several suggested deleting a driver called iPodDriver.kext from the System/Library/Extensions folder and then rebooting the computer. That didn’t work either. (This kind of rigamarole kind of reminded me of my old Windows days!)

I have two words for Apple: “more testing.” Clearly, this version of iTunes was rushed to market, probably to support the new iPod nano and the new Motorola cell phone. Evidently, the hardware guys got ahead of the software guys. This is not what I have come to expect from Apple!

My advice: unless you have bought one of these new pieces of hardware, don't upgrade. Wait for Apple to acknowledge the problem and fix it. In the meantime, I'm going to see if I can find a copy of iTunes 4.9 and downgrade to it. (If you know where I can download this older version, please let me know in the comments section below.)

Update: The PC Doctor has found sites where you can download a copy of iTunes 4.9, both Windows and Mac versions. However, do it quickly. These copies are being rapidly replaced by 5.0.

Restoring Music from Your Apple iPod

A few week’s ago, the hard drive on my oldest daughter’s ThinkPad crashed. It took a couple of weeks to get the part. Unfortunately, as the techs were about to install the new disk, they discovered that the data on the old drive was unrecoverable. Fortunately, she had a semi-recent backup of her most important documents. However, she had not backed up her music collection.

I thought it would be a simple matter of restoring the music from her iPod to her laptop. However, Apple has not made this quite so easy. In a way, I understand. If they did, people would be sharing their music collections with one another without paying for the music. (As someone in the intellectual property rights business myself, I can appreciate this.) Thankfully, Apple sponsors some very active discussion forums for iPod and iTunes users. I found a solution there.

Someone named MacMuse documented the exact steps necessary to copy your music from your iPod to your computer and then re-import the music into iTunes. I’m happy to report that it worked flawlessly. Now my daughter is back in business! (And I am a hero.)