Tivo is unquestionably the killer application for TV. But what about music? Your music collection is inherently different to broadcast TV and hence requires a different approach. What do you really want your listening experience to be? Many companies have realized that it is about breadth of access, customization and the key piece for me, recommendations. What I want is to listen to music I love, and hear some new stuff that I have a high probability of liking, but would likely never happen upon otherwise. A music stream just for me that expands with my tastes while also expanding my tastes.
The Music Genome Project has been developing for 6 years now, analyzing music of all kinds and trying to categorize each and every track in a way that allows an application like Pandora to do exactly what I just described. Tell it which artists you like and it will create a personal radio station for you. If you don't like a track, tell. If you do, tell it. You will be amazed how quickly you will hear new music that you really like but have never heard of. You will also get rewarded with old classics. Create a few different stations and you have music for every mood.
Where this becomes the killer application is when it makes it into consumer devices and not just your PC. That just happened with the Squeezebox from Slim Devices. A little pricey right now, but imagine the same functionality embedded in your receiver, stereo or even your TV. Go ahead and do it now as the server software is available under open source.
Satellite radio? Listen to the same tracks as everyone else? Now why would I need that?
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