Sure, great music transcends borders. But music apps, for the most part, do not. It's a strange state of affairs: the web is global in theory, yet in the 'legit' digital music world, it's all about country-by-country restrictions and licensing hangups. Pandora is famously absent from the UK, one of the most important music markets in the world. Spotify took years to cross into the US, and just recently launched in Australia (after starting in 2008). YouTube regularly restricts videos if you're in the wrong country. Turntable.fm is US-only.
But why do users play along? After all, if there's any rule-of-thumb in the digital era, it's that artificial restrictions and impositions routinely get dismantled or circumvented. High-priced tracks are available for free, songs unavailable on Spotify are available on YouTube, unreleased materials get leaked.
Yet, for some reason, users jumped up-and-down when Spotify came to the States; it was almost like it didn't exist to Americans despite near-ubiquity in Europe. Which suggests that users - on the whole - are happy to circumvent and bypass if it's incredibly easy, but loathe to jump through any hoops. Which would explain the hyper-success of platforms like Napster, and the erosion of download piracy towards free streaming. And in the case of Spotify, this is a company that is actively enforcing restrictions, prohibiting foreign credit cards, and generally making it difficult to cheat.
Which raises the question: is all of this inviting a crafty, simple-stupid workaround from the piracy interwebs? Like Proxmate, a Googe Chrome extension and Firefox add-on that alters your IP address to allow foreign access? Actually, Proxmate has been around for months, but its awareness and adoption still quite modest. And, still a bit limited and buggy: unblocking YouTube, Hulu, and Grooveshark are priorities, with Pandora, Netflix, and Turntable off the list (for now) and complaints about Hulu effectiveness.
Then again, Proxmate is using IP-scrambling technology that's been around for years, but can be annoying to use. And, often ineffective for the non-expert user. Not to mention completely ineffective when it comes to premium accounts (based on local credit cards), and inadvertently problematic for other web-based experiences.
Which means that when it comes to the internet, the world isn't flat, it isn't a 'global village', and local restrictions will remain - at least for above board, licensed platforms.
Written while listening to Alex Clare.
But why do users play along? After all, if there's any rule-of-thumb in the digital era, it's that artificial restrictions and impositions routinely get dismantled or circumvented. High-priced tracks are available for free, songs unavailable on Spotify are available on YouTube, unreleased materials get leaked.
Yet, for some reason, users jumped up-and-down when Spotify came to the States; it was almost like it didn't exist to Americans despite near-ubiquity in Europe. Which suggests that users - on the whole - are happy to circumvent and bypass if it's incredibly easy, but loathe to jump through any hoops. Which would explain the hyper-success of platforms like Napster, and the erosion of download piracy towards free streaming. And in the case of Spotify, this is a company that is actively enforcing restrictions, prohibiting foreign credit cards, and generally making it difficult to cheat.
Which raises the question: is all of this inviting a crafty, simple-stupid workaround from the piracy interwebs? Like Proxmate, a Googe Chrome extension and Firefox add-on that alters your IP address to allow foreign access? Actually, Proxmate has been around for months, but its awareness and adoption still quite modest. And, still a bit limited and buggy: unblocking YouTube, Hulu, and Grooveshark are priorities, with Pandora, Netflix, and Turntable off the list (for now) and complaints about Hulu effectiveness.
Then again, Proxmate is using IP-scrambling technology that's been around for years, but can be annoying to use. And, often ineffective for the non-expert user. Not to mention completely ineffective when it comes to premium accounts (based on local credit cards), and inadvertently problematic for other web-based experiences.
Which means that when it comes to the internet, the world isn't flat, it isn't a 'global village', and local restrictions will remain - at least for above board, licensed platforms.
Written while listening to Alex Clare.
