Sometime around the turn of this young century, a little, relatively unknown application/Web site changed everything forever: Napster. I refer to the original Napster, not the new, pale [and legal] imitation.
Napster was a killer app in more ways than one: Not only did it make the site – and, by extension, Internet access/smarts (preferably broadband access) – a must-see/must-know/must-use, but it struck the first, decisive blow in what will be seen the end of the RIAA’s current business model.
The latter was unintentional – or, at least, not the anticipated effect, collateral or otherwise.
And while the RIAA – and, next in line, the MPAA – haven’t yet really managed to steer their business carts in a different direction, the road has moved: They just don’t want to acknowledge this reality.
History, however, will see Napster as the begin of the end of the old intellectual property systems.
So what does this have to do with blogs?
Well, Napster changed the way end users interacted with music, as well. And, again, we are in a transitional phase for consumers, as well as for vendors.
Whereas before we overwhelmingly purchased LPs and then CDs, today the move is toward purchasing a song at a time. Some artists have resisted this move, and – for sites such as Apple’s iTunes – only permit full-album downloads, but they are in a minority and soon, I predict, this will go the way of the LP.
While the ability to pick and choose – instead of getting a whole album is compelling, there is a downside for the consumer: The consumers loses the cohesiveness of an album, the way a songwriter/singer meant the songs to be told. For many albums this is not that big a deal; for albums such as Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” it destroys a carefully orchestrated composition.
The consumer also loses exposure to the unpopular (i.e, not in rotation on the radio) songs, yet many times I’ve purchased a CD for one song and ended up liking the entire CD or another song or two much more than the reason-to-purchase song.
Art and lyrics are also lost with online purchase – I keep waiting for iTunes and Rhapsody to add PDF downloads of the CD art/lyrics with the song. Could be a differentiator, if nothing else.
Again, what does this have to do with blogs?
To me, what Napster was to the shrink-wrapped CD, RSS is to blogs.
It’s changing the way people view blogs.
Take the example of Robert Scoble: He claims to scan roughly 600 blogs a day. Think he could do that with a browser?
No way!
He uses an aggregator, so he can scan his blog list (600+ blogs…), see the headlines of new stuff, click through to either the site or RSS teaser/full copy from there (I’m not sure what he does).
OK, but that eliminates many/all visits to sites: And like sampling the obscure songs on a CD, visiting a site shows you material that’s not in the “compelling material” (the blog entry, which equates to the song you purchased the CD for).
For example, on my site, I have a rotating Picture of the Day, with links to a full gallery. Other sites have this, side-channel elements describing books they’ve read, people they read, things such as that.
In an aggregator, that stuff in invisible. You’ll never know it’s there. You won’t miss it, but – like that great song that they never play on the radio – you’ll be poorer for missing it.
And what of those folks who put a lot of time and effort into making the blog a compelling visual experience? You know, where – from across the room – you can look at a distant screen and say, “Oh, I see you’re reading [blog]!” All the CSS tricks, the nice graphics, the DHTML widgets. You’ll miss them, as well – and they are often visual clues that give an insight into the blogger’s point of view, their sensibility (examples: Gnome-Girl, Joi Ito, Kottke)
I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with this: As with the Napsterization of music, the Napsterization of blogs merely changes the way people interact with blog – for good and bad.
The good is that more blogs can be accesses more easily, and with tools like OPML, more blogs can be linked/discovered. Additionally, the extensions to RSS – be it RSS 2.0, Atom or whatever – are moving to incorporate more information that may – after some shake out – offer an even better feed of blog data to aggregators. (RSS! It’s not just for blog entry anymore!)
The bad is the reasons I’ve mentioned: Missing ancillary blog material, missing the whole “feel” of a site (and you’re left with only the words, which sometimes is not the whole picture).
It’s getting the meat without the potatoes. More meat, to be sure, but not necessarily a balanced meal.
That’s what Napsterization has to do with blogs.