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from my blog: Tonight I read about a new online music service called "BuyMusic.Com" for the first time. It is billed as a "iTunes for PC users" and this is a conspicuously empty niche in the music business at the moment. I've looked at other services such as Pressplay and MusicNet, but so far they have all sucked in terms of sound quality, value and ridiculous limitations on what you can do with the music that you legitimately purchase. Is BuyMusic any better? Let's find out. I found the link on the front page of Google news. It was attributed to an article from TechTV.com which comes off as both a commercial for the new service and a fairly harsh dig at Apple and iTunes. They make the point that the tracks are slightly less expensive at BuyMusic ($.79 as opposed to $.99) and the obvious problem that only people who own Macs are currently capable of accessing iTunes. They also make a big deal about the service's music catalog which stands at around 300,000 tracks. So I go to the BuyMusic site. The home page is fairly well designed, with top 100 singles and top album listings front and center. At first glance the selection is about what I would expect - Norah Jones is here, as well as Justin Timberlake, Shania Twain and 50 Cent. Okay, so it's not my favorite music but this is what sells so I can't blame them for putting it up front. The real test will come when I try to find some of my favorite music - in other words, something a music fan (as opposed to a 12 year old girl) might actually want to buy. There are some ads on the page, but nothing too intrusive. One is for Windows Media Player 9, which is interesting because it contains an implementation of Microsoft's latest Digital Rights Management technology. WMP9 is also notable for its very open-ended End User License Agreement (EULA) which means basically that if you install this software then you also give Microsoft the legal right to download and install updates to your computer at any time and without asking for your permission. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I just never liked the sound of that. I wonder if it is a required download to use the service. Yep. That makes the other ad somewhat ironic - it is for a Nomad 20GB MP3 Jukebox. Ironic because regular MP3s don't have any DRM built in and a good DRM system would probably prevent the user from transferring legitimately purchased music onto the player. I have yet to find out exactly what format of music this service is actually selling... Are they MP3s or Microsoft Media Player files or some other proprietary format like the one that Apple is using? Time to forge on and find out... So I begin to look around the page for the catalog navigation buttons. Off to the left is a list of genres... Looking down the list I notice that although there is a separate category for "Blues" there is no category at all for "Dance Music." Weh oh. Not a good sign. So I click on Pop/Rock which I figure is the closest thing to dance music they have listed here. Although it lists twenty-something variations on Pop/Rock such as "Teen Pop" and "Experimental Rock" there is still no indication of dance music. Scrolling down the page I do find an album I like however - John Mayer's "Room for Squares." The album price is listed as $12.69. Not too bad, I tell myself. Clicking onto the album info page I encounter my first harsh truth about BuyMusic: They don't have everything that's listed in their catalog. For example, even though the album price was given as $12.69, a note on the album's page says "For Sale as Individual Tracks Only." Furthermore, only four of the twelve tracks can be downloaded, for $.99 each. The first single

Do you think that with PressPlay, MusicNet et al. the digital music business is at the point where it should be? Is it heading in the right direction? Is that what you planned to eventually achieve with MP3.com?

We can download audio from Robin Williams!

To this end, two major groups have been formed. MusicNet and pressplay. MusicNet has support from RealNetworks, AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann AG, EMI Group plc, and Zomba. Pressplay is supported by Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group.

MusicNet says: Our record label partners, BMG, EMI, Warner, and Zomba provide the music that the platform delivers, and RealNetworks, America Online, and Napster will distribute the platform to their subscribers nationwide. MusicNet plans to expand its offerings and is in ongoing discussions with both major and independent labels.

While pressplay claims: The service, which will be available in the U.S. by late summer through a broad array of affiliates, announced its first affiliate relationship in April of this year, joining together with Yahoo! Inc. to form an alliance through which the pressplay service will be marketed to users of Yahoo! network and Yahoo! Music. pressplay is a stand-alone joint venture equally held by Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group.

It's clear that the "future of digital music", will most likely start with the subscription services offered by these two groups. Of course it may take some time for them to refine their business model into something people are eager to pay money for. None the less, the potential is staggering. In the future people are apt to get exactly what they want for a price that's reasonable.

With digital music you can be a lot more flexible in your product offerings. You can sell things on a track level, and you can group these tracks in any way you want. It's not clear what the pricing model for this would be, but what if you only had to pay $0.5 for a digital track. You could get the latest music you actually listen to, instead of getting the latest CD and skipping the tracks that suck. What if you could play a 30 second sound sample of every track in the Sony catalog? This could be huge for music discovery (possibly even more so than radio). What if you belonged to a record club and every piece of music you bought from them was available in digital form for $5/mo. How much would you pay for a subscription to the Pop Top 40?

These are all possibilites for the future, and IMHO show tremendous potential. It's up to them to provide these services at a reasonable price. The problem with Internet radio is that they haven't been able to figure out an attractive pricing model (for users, or advertisers). So while Internet radio may have problems, the future of digital music is very bright indeed.

You realize, of course, that the RIAA is not interested in keeping Napster legal. They are interested in Driving Napster out of existance so that *they* have absolute control.

MusicNet , a joint venture of RealNetworks, AOL Time Warner Inc., Bertelsmann AG, and EMI Group plc, will offer high quality music content to music lovers via downloads and streams.