I’m listening to the FM radio and I hear a song I like. I press a question mark and I instantly see the name of the artist and the other songs on the album and the price of the album. And there’s the damn BUY button, and the next day a CD will show up in my house … I can buy $7 CDs instead of $15 CDs. And you know what’s cool for the radio station? The radio station gets tagged, because this device knew what station you were listening to, and what time. So in your order, they include the information, and the CD guys can send a fee over to the radio station to subsidize them for playing it. It could lead to radio stations with no commercials.
Predictor: Atkinson, Bill
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for Wired magazine, Steve Levy interviews hypercard inventor Bill Atkinson and Andy Hertzfeld about the Internet appliance they are working on for General Magic. Levy writes:”Now that they’ve designed the technology, Bill and Andy love to talk about its implications – how, in effect, General Magic can change the world … ‘Like I’m listening to the FM radio and I hear a song I like,’ says Bill. ‘I press a question mark and I instantly see the name of the artist and the other songs on the album and the price of the album. And there’s the damn BUY button, and the next day a CD will show up in my house … what’ll happen is, you’ll be buying music directly from a specific direct-mail CD place and they can afford to discount – no middleman, so they can afford to sell it at half the going rate, I can buy $7 CDs instead of $15 CDs. And you know what’s cool for the radio station? The radio station gets tagged, because this device knew what station you were listening to, and what time. So in your order, they include the information, and the CD guys can send a fee over to the radio station to subsidize them for playing it … It could lead to radio stations with no commercials.'”
Biography:Bill Atkinson was the man behind many of Apple Computer’s biggest innovations in the 1980s and early ’90s. He was honored with a 1994 EFF Pioneer Award for his work as the graphics-toolbox developer for Apple’s Lisa computers and his application HyperCard, the first truly mass-market hypertext product. In the mid-’90s he became chief scientist at General Magic, a company creating software for personal communicators and digital agents. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: April 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Music
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Bill and Andy’s Excellent Adventure II
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.04/general.magic_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney