Pay Up, Learn How To Code, And Get A Job?

Treehouse is a new educational web service which promises to help guide whoever interests in developing the skill set in web design, web development and iOS development.  Besides promising in training whoever to become a developer in the specific technological areas, Treehouse devises a unique strategy for whoever wants to get hire in their industry.  Treehouse’s strategy is to allow whoever in their programs to take quizes/tests to unlock badges.  The unlocked badges would be presented on a Treehouse participant’s profile.  According to the available unlocked badges, employers would be able to theoretically have a better chance of knowing who might be a good candidate for them to set up an interview with.  Treehouse charges the participants with either $25 or $49 per month.  The $49 per month plan would include additional materials such as more tutorial videos.

In my opinion, nowadays it’s very easy to learn how to become a web designer, web developer, and iOS developer without having to pay a single dollar.  How?  iTunes U is the answer!  Computer users don’t have to use Mac to have access to iTunes U, because they can install iTunes on Windows machines.  After installing iTunes on Windows machines, users can open up iTunes and navigate to iTunes U to download videos that teach users how to write programs in different computer languages, developing iOS applications, designing websites, and a lot more.  iTunes U isn’t for just these specific areas of study, because iTunes U allows users to learn just about any available open course of different universities.  Don’t be fooled by having to navigate to iTunes Store before one could check up on iTunes U, because iTunes U is indeed free!  It’s free to download educational videos so one could watch it at any time.

With knowing that one might not have to pay to learn how to become a developer for the information industry, it might be hard for some people to imagine about paying for programs that provide by educational web services such as Treehouse.  Nonetheless, Treehouse looks attractive to some people, because they think Treehouse might be able to allow them to find jobs that they’re specialized in (e.g., web designing, web development, iOS development).  I surmise that some folks who already have the experiences in these technological areas might just join Treehouse to unlock badges so certain employers might come around and interview them.  This will do if one believes Treehouse will be able to attract enough attentions from various employers of big companies and so on.

I’m not sure Treehouse will definitely be a solution for whoever wants to get a job as web designer or web developer or iOS developer.  The ultimate decision will have to rest upon the shoulders of the employers from various companies in regarding to hire specific Treehouse participants.  Perhaps, Treehouse participants might get the exposures they need for getting interviews, but they still have to score the interviews before the employers hire them.  As I mentioned earlier, Treehouse isn’t providing unique learning materials, because one can just download the similar educational materials within iTunes U.  If iTunes U isn’t carrying certain educational materials, there might be other places and sources for one to acquire such educational materials.


Google Plans To Launch Music Downloading Store, Competing Against iTunes Store and Spotify

It’s being reported that Google is going to build a music downloading store.  Google might integrate its music downloading store tightly with Google Plus and other product platforms of theirs.  Customers will be able to listen to a short preview of each track before purchasing the track for real.

Call it an intuition, I think Google’s soon to launch music downloading store might not be special and attractive.  It’s a competitive market!  For an instance, Apple’s iTunes Store has done the same thing for a long time already.  Wikipedia has that iTunes Store has been selling music since April 28, 2003.

If there is only iTunes Store to worry about, then Google’s new music downloading store has little to fear of.  Unfortunately, iTunes  Store’s business model is facing off against a newer and more aggressive music business model which is Spotify’s subscription based music business model.

Spotify, a Swedish music streaming company which has its headquarter in UK, has been letting people streaming large collections of music.  According to Wikipedia, since July of 2011, Spotify has about 15 million songs for customers/users to stream.  The better part is that Spotify charges customers with a low monthly fee for perquisite such as no advertising.  Paying a premium price of $9.99 per month, customers/users get even more perquisites such as play local files and music from Spotify on mobile and desktop, use offline mode on mobile and desktop, enhanced sound quality, exclusive content, and play Spotify through music systems.

Looking through the lens of customers, we can see that subscription based music business model is many times more attractive than iTunes Store’s music business model.  Instead of buying each song for a price, users from Spotify can really listen to whatever their hearts love.  They can stream all day and night for whatever songs they want, including the newest songs that come out recently.  Through subscription based music business model, Spotify allows customers/users to discover newer artists without the fear of spending waste dimes on unknown artists.  After all, they have already paid a low monthly subscription fee!

Google’s new music downloading store will have to face the same challenge as iTunes Store and even more since it’s newer than everyone else!  Unlike other startups, Google does have advantages as it’s a household name and countless users are using Google’s countless services.  To name a few, Google Plus, Google Search, Google Docs, Google Earth and so on.  With a large user base at hand, Google can easily push its new music downloading store to the foreground.  Oh, let not forget Google is also an advertising company, and so it should not be hard for Google to advertise its own new music downloading store effectively.

I’m kind of hoping for Google to lean toward the subscription based music business model.  Unfortunately, Google has picked the iTunes Store music business model.  Speaking for myself, I don’t buy music on iTunes Store even though I’m a user of Mac, iPhone, and iPad.  Instead, I’m a premium member of Spotify.  This pretty much tells me that I’m not going to be likely to purchase any music on Google’s new music downloading store.

In conclusion, it’s exciting to see Google joins the fun of a swell of competitive online music stores such as iTunes Store.  Nonetheless, can Google be able to make its new music downloading store a profitable story?  Perhaps, subscription based music business model of Spotify will grow so fast that it might be hopeless for Google’s new music downloading store to see the light of day.  We never know, but I’m crossing my fingers, voting for Spotify!