Anyone else out there remember the famous 1981 ad by Apple in the Wall Street Journal, welcoming competitor IBM into the personal computer age? The ad was Apple’s stake in the ground, saying it had invented the first PC system—and predicting massive growth and competition in the burgeoning industry. The rest, as they say, is history.
It’s also the future. Today, Seattle-based Melodeo, maker of the cloud-based music service nuTsie, spoofed the classic ad with one of its own. In a company blog post, Dave Dederer, Melodeo’s vice president of business development (and resident rock star from The Presidents of the United States of America), congratulates Apple on the “imminent launch of [its] first music streaming service.”
That’s a reference to the tech giant’s recent acquisition of Palo Alto-based Lala, a competitor to Melodeo, and its entrance into the world of cloud-based music. Melodeo, you see, saw this as a big opportunity back in 2006 or so. (I’m killing the humor by explaining it, so just check out the post.)
“When we invented the first iTunes music placeshifting service three years ago, we estimated that over 400,000,000 people worldwide could justify the purchase of one, if only they understood its benefits,” Dederer writes. “Next year alone, we project that well over 50,000,000 will come to that understanding. Over the next decade, the growth of cloud-based music streaming will continue in logarithmic leaps.”
It’s always cool (and important) to remember the technology wars that have come before. Now let the new competition—which will include this prominent Seattle startup—begin.
