SOMM Soapbox

The success and popularity of iOS and Android powered mobile devices are having an impact on traditional computing. From Microsoft’s focus on making Windows 8 mobile friendly to Apple’s iOS-like makeover of its upcoming OS X Mountain Lion, the mobilization of computing is here to stay. The question is will the advantages of this mobilization outweigh its disadvantages?

Google’s music service joins a new wave of cloud-based offerings that have the ability and leverage to turn the music industry’s business model upside down on its head…again. Not since the dawn of the MP3 and file sharing has the music industry faced such a major threat and this time, it’s legal (for now).

Imagine purchasing an album one time and with a few clicks, have that album be made available to you on any computer and/or device at anytime. This scenario while possible now isn’t quite legal due to the restrictions imposed by modern digital music services like iTunes. Sure, music downloads don’t have the Digital Rights Management (DRM) embedded into their files but the terms and conditions you agree upon when you download still place restrictions on how and where you can use your music. This is set to change with services like Music Beta by Google.