The Virtual Ipod

Following up on my recent post about the Virtual DVR, I discovered Mediamaster, a free service that allows you to upload a Ipod Nano's worth of music online and access it from anywhere you can get an internet connection. Better yet, they provide an embed code so you can add a music-playing widget to your blog or Myspace page.

The obvious application for this is to create your own online jukebox to share with your friends, however that functionality is not supported yet.

At the moment, I'll opt to carry my Ipod. It's more convenient and I can take it places the internet doesn't go (like the subway). However, once I'm able to get high-quality streaming audio on a handheld device with out playing exorbitant data fees, then an online music vault would make sense to me. I like the idea of centralizing my data and being able to access it multiple ways. And no more Ipod-Itunes syncing.

Storing your media online is just the first step in the evolution to complete virtualization of media. The next step is realizing that for most media, you do not need a personal copy. Every copy of Britney Spears' Toxic is essentially the same, barring bitrate variations and remixes. Why should we store a million copies of the same piece of media when one copy can easily serve a million people?

Again, I'm arguing for the universal media library. The new library of Alexandria. I'm willing to bet 100 dollars that we'll see it in some form within the next decade. Any takers?

(via StartupSquad)