You may have noticed that while movie rental, music purchase and the news have all started gradually adopting the internet platform, the radio is a bit behind. That is actually not for a lack of quality offerings: startups like Pandora have been developing web applications that introduce you to new music based on your personal taste. They are building the emerging market of Internet Radio.

Why have you likely not heard of these excellent services yet? Because current rules and regulations are making it extremely difficult for them to grow. Under the current conditions, Internet Radio providers must give up a very large percentage of their revenue in royalties. And it is only getting worse, with forecasted rates eventually climbing as high as 70% of their profits! Amazingly enough, AM/FM radio stations do not need to pay any royalties. This is making it nearly impossible for Internet Radio providers to grow and compete.

Thankfully, lawmakers are working on a solution. The Associated Press published an article yesterday that explains how Congress is poised to pass Internet Radio legislation that will greatly reduce the royalties that Internet Radio providers need to pay, thereby allowing them to grow and develop as any business should be allowed to do.

This is truly excellent news for the consumers as Internet Radio is a phenomenal and yet vastly under-developed way to find new talent and to support tomorrow’s great artists.

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

As we’ve previously discussed, the boundaries between types of content delivery have been slowly eroding for a while.  More than likely, hard media (CD, DVD, BluRay) will gradually become less prevalent while digital media (downloadable and/or streaming content) will become the norm.  It’s already very easy to buy or rent movies and TV shows digitally through services like Amazon (Etilities Forum) Video-on-Demand or Netflix (Etilities Forum).  The difficulty is that often you can only play your media on a few devices – sometimes just one!  For example, you may have bought the latest season of The Office from Amazon, but if you want to watch an episode on your Zune while working out, it may be a complicated endeavor due to the limitations of the notoriously pesky DRM implementations out there.

The industry is keenly aware of this fact and last week officially formed a group to discover a solution to this problem that would allow the content you’ve purchased to be viewable anywhere. Most of the big names among movie studios and media retailers are joining the effort, with the notable exception of Apple, Inc, which will no doubt continue developing their current solution to this problem: just buy all Apple products and you can watch your iTunes (Etilities Forum) purchases anywhere! (This solution has been working great for me, by the way.)

Regardless of whether or not this initiative succeeds (there are no details about it yet except for the fact that the group has been formed), this is definitely a step in the right direction and if anything shows that the industry is aware of this limitation and is actively trying to overcome it – and eventually will.

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Today, we generally shop for music in very different ways than we did 20 years ago.  Fewer consumers than ever go to “brick-and-mortar” stores to listen to music that must be purchased on hard media (tapes, CDs, DVDs).  A large portion of the consumer base now goes to Apple Inc’s iTunes (Etilities Forum) or Napster (Etilities Forum) to buy their favorite songs and albums in digital format.

The already popular social networking site MySpace has just launched its own digital music service, which lets you listen to songs for “free” (meaning you’ll be bombarded with ads) or for purchase.  This service operates through a partnership with Amazon, which is itself no stranger to the industry, as they sell music in both hard media and DRM-free digital download formats.

Backed by all the major labels, MySpace is hoping to pick up some of the market that is right now largely dominated by Apple. Given its already large user base and its reputation for helping upcoming artists gain popularity, it seems very well placed to do so.

Regardless of whether or not MySpace is successful in gaining significant market share in the digital music space, this is a nice step in the direction of media being universally accessible in the cloud, ever more cheaply.

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

The cell phone era has provoked an inevitable decline in the use of landlines in homes everywhere. After all mobile technology has been growing increasingly cheap, reliable, and rich in functionality while landlines remain comparatively primitive. The Associated Press (AP) published an article yesterday about this trend being particularly pronounced in Europe where, as of 2007, there are 112 cell phones per 100 people and anywhere from 25% to 61% of households are using cell phones exclusively.

Now we previously discussed plenty of reasons why you might want to keep your landlines. In explaining the european cell phone statistics, the AP points out that “monthly line rental for fixed phones costs more on average than a prepaid mobile phone package.” I think that if the hassle and cost of a landline were low enough, everyone would want to have one. What’s the point here? Simply that all roads lead to VoIP.

The reason why current landlines are so expensive is because they depend on old, expensive technology and on greedy, outdated pricing models. Companies like Vonage (Etilities Forum) and Skype (Etilities Forum) have gone to great lengths to make VoIP technology cheap and reliable. Given that the broadband footprint is very strong in Europe, it should not be too long before the adoption of VoIP technology explodes in Europe to fulfill the need for landlines. The European consumer base just needs to realize that it’s an option.

And why should we Americans care? Well because this will make the VoIP industry more mature. Cheaper prices, better call quality, more providers… whether the technology is improved in Europe, Asia, America or Antarctica, everybody wins.

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Alexandria, VA., September 22, 2008

Gallop Services, Inc. is proud to announce that Thibaud Morel L’Horset has joined their ranks as Vice President of Development.  As such, Thibaud will lead the development and management of Gallop’s application built to provide the best choice in technology services to our clients.

Over the course of his career, Thibaud as served in several startup companies in positions of increased responsibility.  He has functionally and technically developed, implemented and supported various web applications, building extensive experience with databases, application servers, web development and graphics design.  Thibaud joins us from Plateau Systems where he led its customer support team and coordinated application resolution issues since 2006.

Phil Hagen, Board Member for Gallop Services stated “In addition to Thibaud’s technical expertise in application development and management, his experience building and leading customer support teams perfectly complements Gallop’s vision to connect people through affordable and reliable information technology services.”

Thibaud holds a Bachelors of Computer Science from Tufts University.  He lives in Alexandria, VA.

About Gallop Services, Inc.

Headquartered in Northern Virginia, Gallop Services Inc. is an independent, privately-owned company that aims to provide customers with the information needed to balance the cost and quality of technology services, based on their unique requirements.
Gallop focuses on the analysis of the overall technology market space from the personal consumer and small business perspectives and offers provisioning and selection services across the technology services industry. As a consumer-focused business, Gallop leverages client input and actual data to sort through the inevitable “fine print” and find the true facts of what services cost. The Gallop research team continuously scans the market for new providers and updated offerings from existing suppliers, always focusing on the delivery of services to the end consumer.

Contact Gallop Services, Inc.

Contact:
Gallop Press Relations
press@gallopinc.com

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

With some of the recent news about hurricanes Hanna, Ike and others likely coming, one big question looms about whether we all have appropriate evacuation plans.  Living in the metro Washington DC area, our family has the beginnings of an evacuation plan, although it is admittedly not as well rehearsed as I would like.

As part of any appropriate plan, communication is critical.  Communication between the members of your family and those who want news from and about you as you relocate is paramount.  Unfortunately, too many first consider this issue only when the plan needs to be activated.

Of course, cell phones are important components of the plan, as they allow you to remain in direct contact with friends and family as you travel.  But what about your landline?  If you plan on staying with friends in another area, most providers allow you to forward your home number to another phone.  

This is where having a VoIP provider may be beneficial.  Some providers such as Skype (Etilities Forum) allow you to maintain your phone number directly from your computer, enabling you to remain in contact anywhere you go as long as you have an internet connection.  Others, such as Vonage (Etilities Forum), Lingo (Etilities Forum), or ViaTalk (Etilities Forum), enable you to carry the router with you.  With these providers, you can turn on your own home telecommunication system anywhere you go.  

We wish our best to the evacuees of Hurricane Ike, and those affected by any storms or other disasters.  Should you have any questions about these services or how to set them up as you relocate, feel free to post a comment or contact us directly.

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

I’ve struggled for some time thinking through how much regulatory oversight the government should have over telecommunications companies.  This is of course not an easy question to answer as there are both sides of the story to consider.

On the one hand, an ardent capitalist would argue for a lack of governmental oversight on the industry to foster a more pure free-market environment.  The very concept of free market is that although never in a perfect state, the inefficiencies of companies within a given market drives innovation across the entire market space, thereby driving the industry towards improved efficiencies.  Companies that can’t keep up will go out of business and soon be replaced by new ones that can.  Too much government influence can stifle this innovation and limit potential benefits to customers.

On the other hand, particularly as it relates to the consumer business, large companies can collude against the best interest of individual customers.  Therefore, a certain level of governmental regulation can be beneficial to the consumer because it will provide them with visibility into how the companies operate.  Specifically, consumers can more easily learn how well those companies keep promises to their clients.  Such regulation can also prevent collusion between large companies against the interest of the buyer.

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©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.