the itunes vs zune vs youtube makes total sense. lady gaga didn’t get to 1 billion views if people weren’t using youtube as not only a music source, but a significant portion of their music source. yes, that sounds ridiculous at first, but there are many people who mostly listen to music from their computer. i mean, just divide that play count into the number of lady gaga track buys, and the conclusion i think becomes clear.
how do people share music tracks they like on facebook, twitter, blogs, etc? by posting a link to a place you know everyone can get it… youtube.
also, since google doesn’t actually have a music-purchasing-service for android one can hypothesize that a person with an android will more be more likely than an iphone owner to have pirated their stuff.
one of the most readily available source of getting wide-open for the taking content on the web is simply running the studio-release HD version of a youtube vid through any of a number of youtube-to-mp3 converter sites or proggys.
but that’s actually the hard way if you have an android phone. on an android it is easier to steal music directly to the device with imusic than to download it from say itunes on your desktop then sync.
this goes back to “tyranny vs freedom” / “premium quality for premium price vs freetarded” that is the google vs apple war. google doesn’t care if the the content becomes free (and neither does apple, actually, they would rather it were… they are just playing nicer with the publishers).
quicktime v silverlight should be “hijacking html5 standards push and making it your bitch” v silverlight. yah, that one was totally off.
the thing i believe this totally misses is that when webapps work well, apple wins too. google has been cloud since they started and microsoft is trying its ass off to get there also.
there is a reason their aapl shares have been on a basically variance-free climb since the ipad announcement in january. the market is speaking, and it is saying it likes the strategy they are steadily revealing. and, imo, the market is the best “crowdsourcing” there is - people backing their feelings/beliefs/conclusions with their money.