And now the TV is doing it too! Thom Yorke and co. can complain about Spotify and other streaming services every single day, it seems it’s here to stay as the infernal machine has even extended its possibilities. BT TV, a British subscription IPTV which has about 833,000 subscribers, is about to launch a music streaming service. This deal has already been backed by Universal Music, so there is no turning back.
According to the Guardian, the service will offer about 150 albums of music tracks, but will very fast increase to more than 1,000 albums and they are already targeting the other major music companies as well as independent record labels. So if you live in England and are an BT TV Unlimited subscriber, it will be free for you, but will only cost £3 a month to other BT TV customers.
I really wonder about all this, my satellite TV provider already offers tons of radio-channels, you know a channel per decade, there are the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s…, and a channel by genre, country, bluegrass, rock, college rock, adult alternative,… I have checked I have 78 audio channels, but I never, never listen to any of them! It is simply not what we have been trained to, turn on the TV to listen to music? What a crazy idea if there is no image. We have our computers, iPods and iPhones, why the hell would I turn on the TV to stare at a blue screen while listening to some has-been band of the 80s? So, the same way, I don’t see myself streaming music on a music channel if Direct TV offers me this opportunity tomorrow, and of course I would never pay for it!
This made me think about the infinite choices we have these days, how can we possibly use all of them in a lifetime? Plus I don’t see how BT TV will be able to compete with Spotify which has already so much music and offers to its subscribers an access to the music through their mobile devices. But I forgot, the service will also offer a karaoke option and this will change everything!… Just kidding!