Next Music Delivery System

First you bought records and tapes in a store, then CDs in a store, then CDs online, then digital files online – what’s next? CDs and files via TV:

Every generation gets the entertainment it deserves.

None of this comes as news to World Theatre executive chairman and CEO Robert Summer. A music business player who’s been around long enough to have trafficked in vinyl, Summer has served as president of RCA Records and Sony Music International and was chairman of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In helming World Theatre, Summer is calling on his music world connections to help launch a cable channel dedicated to music and e-commerce.

The aim of the as yet unnamed channel is to enable cable subscribers to purchase albums through their set-top boxes. As the viewer watches music videos, an interactive catalogue will allow for the transfer of the relevant files from the server to the set-top. From there, the files can be burned onto an audio CD or sent to other devices in the home.

….EVP of IT and operations, Randy Daniel, says the network should launch in April or May 2003, with service being offered to users running Motorola DCT-2000 or Scientific-Atlanta Explorer 2000 set-tops. “Things don’t happen overnight,” Daniel says. “We’ve had to make a road map to aid cable operators in seeing the value of the service and the ease with which it can be rolled out.”

As more advanced boxes are introduced to the market, the e-commerce opportunities will become more advanced as well. Physical CDs will be shipped by mail in the early going, as the set-top will function as an analog to an online service along the lines of an Amazon.com. Once the thicker-client boxes begin to roll out, World Theatre will allow for the purchase of digital files. [CableWorld]

This seems to be equally about providing entertainment and selling the consumer his own “copy” of that entertainment – a cyborg.