JBL: Revolution Calling

In the beginning of the 20th century, there was the automobile boom. In the middle, there was the television boom. At the end, there was the Internet boom. This century starts out with another boom: the new age of media content.

During every boom a lot of money is made and a lot is lost. This boom will be no different; that's what makes it so exciting.

Up until the Internet boom we received content either through TV, radio or newspaper. Now, throw all of that out the window, because we are entering a new era in which the Internet is a huge, although not exclusive, part of content delivery.

The heady predictions about the Internet in the 1990s are now coming true. Internet phone calls, online bill paying, downloadable music and movies, exclusive Web video content, online banking, the transformation of cell phones into our personal computers and high-speed Internet access on those cell phones are now the norm.

In 2000 just 5 million Americans had high speed access. By 2005, the number had grown to 73 million, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Just think, how few people even had cell phones 10 years ago.

While the Net is still an unbelievable growth story, the thing that is truly shocking to me is how the ways in which content is distributed are changing almost daily.

Apple (AAPL Quote) changed how we listen to music. They may not have been the first, but they were the ones that changed the landscape of how music is delivered to consumers. The iTunes music store has sold more than 1 billion songs. Apple will do the same for video content, and I believe its stock is a buy here.

Traditional terrestrial music radio stations are dead; some just have not realized it yet. There are too many ways to listen to music, from iPods to satellite radio. The only thing that is not dead in radio is original content, which cannot be replicated. Anything that can be replicated (e.g. music) is dead.