My family have a long history with ipods now. In fact, the latest versions, enabling Facetime functionality via WiFi provides some exciting options for the younger generation who can delay their commitment to monthly networking bills for the rest of their lives just a little longer.

However, for those of us looking for the cheapest device to play music in our businesses these devices provide realistic alternatives to using a mobile phone to play music and to an ipod which otherwise would be the only option for an app based royalty free music playing system. In addition, they provide an even cheaper way get background music into your business.

An article here covers some of the current possible alternatives to the ipod, which is great for the customer in terms of competition. Considering the need for businesses to look at delivering a system for background mood music and the potential for the need for a large budget, it is great to see the combination of an Android music player linked with a bluetooth sound system playing Melody Pods music.

Why spend thousands on a dedicated music storage player with traditional performance and copyright licenses when you can get all you need from an Android mp3 player or an ipod either running the MelodyPods player app and a Melody Pods subscription ?

Soon we will be doing some design exercises into creating solutions for small businesses around budget mobile devices that highlight the reduction in costs that achieve the same objective of much more expensive and more complicated solutions.

With news of security breaches becoming daily occurrences (see this news from Evernote who business professionals trust to hold their business planning and operational documents) it’s worth asking all your business services partners how well do they secure your personal data.

Here at Melody Pods we take a view that although we use industry strength security and security policies (around passwords and managing software and security updates promptly) we know that if the best corporates in the US can be hacked then anyone can be, given the motivation to do so.

Therefore we took a very early decision not to be involved in managing and holding your bank and card data. We partner only with merchants that will provide this service for both of us so our store is never a location for stored card details.

Secondly, our server does not hold any of your business critical data. You only trust is with your user id, password and a given email address, all of which you can set up to be completely independent of any other related service you have. So for example, you can create an email account on your own system for only communicating with us.

Secure Purchasing & Account Management

SSL Certificate
Both registration with subscription ordering plus account access is achieved with Secure Sockets Layer certificates over Https transmissions (SSL).

Additional policies.

We will never email you asking for you to re register your details. You should always look at any link given to ensure the domain name is the same as the recipient and always keep your own virus software up to date on your own computers.

Additionally we will be introducing a regular security forum for all customers who want to talk and share their concerns and requirements around the storage of their data.

Melody Pods complies with the UK Data Protection Act.

With the new growth in streaming subscription services it seems to me the music listener’s consciousness is maturing to being served with music online. However for a reliable constant feed of music with no embarrassing gaps in the playing streams need lower quality music compression formats to be reliable.

Downloads can offer higher qualty music formats but ultimately won’t be able to offer such a massive music base as a stream service. However how much music do you really want?

We can compare these services to the radio which is a mature and well developed way of servicing up music to listeners.

Satelight services offer the quality that radio offers in that it is uninterrupted but it offers higher quality than the radio offers so you could be streaming CD quality via satelight instead of the fm quality radio can offer. Digital radio offers an increase quality here of course.

Safelight offers this but with the increased cost of the service and the increased cost of the equipment required. Start up costs are many hundreds even before you consider your sound system and any wiring and extra speakers you will want to add. If you are a small business it would be hard to justify this cost for your in store background music.

Many small businesses are now digitising their own personal music and bringing their phone or mp3 players in store and into spas for example to simply play the music they have chosen themselves. Simple.

So, since smart phones are becoming popular and within the cost reach of business professionals this could be seen as a sunk cost already, or even provide a dedicated device that is held into when you upgrade your phone. Our services do not require the lasted phones or the fasted processors to work.

Simple music playing solutions are now appearing with some online music libraries now offering a subscription based downloading service. These services download the music to your iPod or phone ready to play leaving your Internet connection (or you may not even have one at work!) clear for other network activities that may affect a streamed service during the busy working day.

The challenge of time to download your tracks as opposed to streaming is only encountered for the first download with any new subscription if the system is designed correctly. The first download will be large and if the system is designed well, it will provide updates to the download that partly replace the music you have each month. You will need to check you have enough space on your device before you download.

If the first download is left to do its work over night the music will not interrupt your dayly work, plus you can download from anywhere that has a good wifi connection so you don’t have to be in the office waiting around for this. Simply download the app, rigister and subscribe, then leave the music to download whilst you chill from your working day.

So whilst streaming is growing for the consumer market it seems to me a little too early for the business market.