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MP3.com's Beam-It
Mutok pointed us to MP3.com's new
Beat It program. It is of course windows only which means I've never tested it, and functionally it works almost exactly like a collection of Perl scripts Nate and I hacked out a year ago to serve our personal collection of MP3s.
Basically, the software checks if you have a CD, and it tracks your collection. Then you use the software to track playlists and play your MP3s. There are a lot of interesting legal problems here, and the potential for abuse is high. But dangit if this isn't the future of music, I'm gonna be cranky. Now can I please have a Linux port?
A bit more info (for those who are interested!)
Basically, Beam-It sends the length of the CD in seconds, then first audio track number (not necessarily 1) and the last audio track. Then the offset for each of those audio tracks. That's it.
Can you imagine this: "I have this great new album. Try it: 24445,1,9,1454,2334,4435,5676,6341,7323,8583,9318"
Cool!
Asif T
He couldn't give me a timetable, but it is coming.
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Go to my.mp3.com - it'll give you the download list and recommendations on what else to try based on your previous downloads.
...j
That's what false contact information and JunkBuster is for! Did I mention it also keeps Netscape from ignoring its UI event queue while doing DNS lookups? It's fun for a girl and a boy.
--
but a lot of fun illegaly. Obviously, there is no big demand to get mp3s of cd's you own. But the idea of collectively sharing a pool of cd's amoung some geographically distributed friends is quite tempting and interesting. Illegal of course, but all that's stopping you is a stupid FAQ question that says "Should I give out my password"?
The /. blurb doesn't make this clear enough: The purpose of this is not to play the cd that is in your drive; it lets mp3.com build a list of cds you own, and then you can listen to songs from those cds via a shoutcast-like stream. I suppose this makes sense for people who have enough bandwith to listen to streaming mp3s, not enough CPU/disk space to encode their collection themselves, and not enough patience to change cds on their own. Somehow I don't think this is a very large segment of the population.
If you have, say, a few hundred CDs (and I know people who have thousands), and you suddenly feel like hearing a track from one of them, chances are you may not have it on hand. However, if you have said CDs at home, you have a licence to use them, and this provides an alternate means.
In future, such licence registries could be used for other things. Say, a favourite CD of yours is destroyed; if you have legal proof that you own a licence to play it, you may be able to get a new copy for the cost of the media.
(Granted, that could be open to abuse, unless CDs are serialised or somesuch. Though the potential is there.)
I have no legal basis for this, but it seems like this sort of hits right in the gray area of US copyright law - it's illegal for people to download music they don't own. It's illegal for people to upload music they own for people who don't own it to download. But is it illegal for people who own music to post it so other people who own it can download it again? If so, how far does that right extend. If I own the LP version of a track, can I download the live version? I haven't ever heard any discussion of a case like this before; even RIAAs own propaganda doesn't mention it. Any legal scholars want to take a whack at it?
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I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
No, it's not a free-market economy. The record industry is an example of laissez-faire capitalism at its worst. 5 huge companies control what's played on the radio, what CDs you find at the store, etc. And it's not just a question of risk. Artists recoup about 5% of their gross CD sales money. Do you really mean to tell me that the other 95% is so called "flop insurance" in case the CD sucks? Get real - even when CDs flop the record companies still turn a profit. That's the way it is my friend, and if you are still buying CDs then you, not me, are supporting the old school regime which robs the musician of the money and motivation to produce more material. If every musician distributed through MP3, I guarantee you you would see more people producing more work of more quality.
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I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
Wasn't the whole point of mp3's to listen to songs you don't have?
No. The whole point of MP3 isn't so you can listen to songs you don't have. The whole point of MP3 is to compress music. That's it. Nothing else.
It seems that the point of this service is so that you can tell the server what CDs' you have, and then you can listen to them from anywhere in the world, without having to carry the CD around with you.
-- Hulver's site
Not only that, mp3.com has a _lot_ of bandwidth.
Inside the m3u is just a plain http:// address. Use wget and get the mp3. Simple as that. Damn, faster than ripping/encoding it.
-- adraken
Time isn't an issue. You pop in the CD and hit one button. It takes 2 seconds. -- Done.
-- adraken
that is technically impossible. if something gets to your PC, then you *can* save it. in the case of an mp3 streamed through http, it's not even hard: just find out the URL and use wget.
And if you want something even more portable, just buy a little MP3 player. I've got 90 mins of music in my little Rio (and 12 hours of battery life from a AA).
Meanwhile, the General Manager's son, who is working here for the holidays, has his headphones plugged into the CD drive of a spare PC. He also has a small pouch of CDs to the side of the PC. The PC does not have a sound card.
I have a portable PC. I've got about 12 hours of music on the hard drive, I use it at work and at home (I'm listening to "Rasputina" as I type). As a coincidence, my network adapter is in the shop, so I'm acutally dialled into my work network using a 28.8k link - try streaming through that.
Friends of mine use those removable IDE drive trays to shuffle Gigs of data back and forth.
I've been minimising my demand on the network, such that I'll be moving to a 1Mb/s Wireless Bluetooth link when that becomes available. Streaming MP3s through it is such a waste.
Meanwhile, the General Manager's son, who is working here for the holidays, has his headphones plugged into the CD drive of a spare PC. He also has a small pouch of CDs to the side of the PC. The PC does not have a sound card.
I have a portable PC. I've got about 12 hours of music on the hard drive, I use it at work and at home (I'm listening to "Rasputina" as I type). As a coincidence, my network adapter is in the shop, so I'm acutally dialled into my work network using a 28.8k link - try streaming through that.
Friends of mine use those removable IDE drive trays to shuffle Gigs of data back and forth.
I've been minimising my demand on the network, such that I'll be moving to a 1Mb/s Wireless Bluetooth link when that becomes available. Streaming MP3s through it is such a waste.
(Ooo, this could be a duplicate - I hope not, sorry if it is...)
I wonder what they do about variants? If I have the Australian distribution of Album X, with "bonus" song Y - But MP3.com have the US distribution of Album X, with "bonus" song Z, does that mean I'm screwed, or do MP3.com just give me access to the near match they have?
Also, do you have a T1 link to your car?
Bitrate is an interesting issue. There are plenty of people that won't listen to 128k/s MP3s. Some have a minimum of 160k/s, others boost it up to 256k/s or 360-something. For many people, the limited audio quality of the stream will be a big turn off, since they can easily rip, encode and transport much higher quality music themselves...
I'm going to use the Beam-It stuff simply to expose MP3.com's database to the obscure stuff I like. If this means that 90% of the stuff I own is unavailable because my taste is strange, or simply that I live in Australia and our local releases are different, so be it. If it means that they buy one extra copy of each CD from struggling talented artists I've found (eg; Wendy Rule), then Great! Time someone showed "them" that commercial CDs don't start and end with the top 50.
Okay, maybe you only have 10 CD's. But it's typically for most people have many, many more. But for the sake of the arguement, let's say we are talking about 100 CD's.
Now, as you are playing CD's, when one finishes, you have to take it out to put another one in. You constantly do this. Perhaps once an hour or so. Anyways, after about 2 weeks, you go through all your CD's. So now what? You start over. Take the last cd out, put the next cd in. take out, put in. take out, put in. take out, put in. take out, put in. take out, put in. This will continue for as long as you choose to listen to music.
However, if as you put the cd in the first time you take 2 seconds to register it with my.mp3.com, then when you finish those 100 cd's your cd swapping days are over. And you just don't have a need to swap cd's anymore, but you can listen to the cd's anywhere. Home, work, friends house. No more need to make sure that you didn't forget the CD's either. I don't know about you, but whether it's 10 CD's or a 100's CD's, it's the same amount of work to continually swap them. And I think that having the available anywhere is a *real* benefit.
-Brent2 computers. 2 stereos. A computer at work. CD Player in the car. Yeah, right. I want to haul my CD's everywhere to listen to them. I'll be lucky if their in the right stereo as it is. No, you set up your my.mp3.com account and then you you are set where computers are concerned. Now I just need to remember not to leave the cd in the car when I want to list to the stereo...
-BrentActually, if you'd read what this was all about, you'd know that there's no uploading. mp3.com already has all the songs encoded on their server. You just need to show them that you own it.
-BrentNope. I disagree.
Yes.. I want to pay the artists that make the music I enjoy, and I want them to keep making that good music.. definately!
The problem is, it's not worth $20/album to me to get music. It's not.. and the artist sees pennies of that anyway..
So.. if the artist gives me a way to pay them directly for the music I listen to, at a fair price, then I will gladly pay, but I will not inconvenience myself in order to do so.
I care not about labels, or about CDs. Musicians have made money for THOUSANDS of years, and record companies are only a very recent development.. so....
Okay. Nothing is wrong with 'storing' it at a remote site. THe problem is.. and this is where the dynamic interpretive nature of law will come in to play, is that mp3.com is not offering to 'store' your music for you.. they already *have* the music, and simply let you listen to it if you can show you already have the cd.
The problem? Although you personally have the right to make copies of your music, that does not necessarily give mp3.com the right to broadcast/distribute that same music to you.
Umm...
because the radio station must pay royalties every time it plays a song, and mp3.com does not?
As I've said before, the fact that you personally own a cd, and can make personal copies of it, does not mean that anyone else has the right to distribute that music to you.
I couldn't agree more. If this is the future of music, I'm gonna be more than cranky. I'm not saying there is no place for mp3. It's fine for playing music on your laptop (for example), but for serious audio, the quality just isn't there. Plus, as you say, when you buy a CD you get more than the bits on the disc; you also get the lyrics, liner notes, etc. that (to me at least) contribute to the whole musical experience.
Admit nothing, deny everything and make counter-accusations.
"...functionally it works almost exactly like a collection of Perl scripts Nate and I hacked out a year..."
"Now can I please have a Linux port?"
Why? You have software that works the same. If your concern is for other people, just make your scripts available for them to download. I don't understand the problem.
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Look-and-feel lawsuits get thrown out too, otherwise they'd be in the shit too... That thing is almost a replica of myplay.com :-\
Open Source. Closed Minds. We are Slashdot.
I was fooling with beamit and put about 120 tracks up, and i went to try to play a few of them. I noticed that it had mistakenly identified my Limp Bizkit Significant other CD as Magick Rock - Volume One - Rise 13 (whatever the hell that is).
This may be a big problem because at least 1 in 10 cds that i look up in cddb have multiple cd listings assigned to the same id. I dont think beam-its gonna be around very long. It is too easy to abuse, because it trusts the client computer. If i found out the id of a particular cd, whats stopping me from burning a cd of crap with the same id and beaming it to their server, then downloading the tracks? Or i might give my friend my username and password so he could beam cds to me, and could access my collection.
Its convienient while its there, but dont count on being able to use it for long.
with the list of cd's that I own? From the terms of service:
I especially don't like the fact that the privacy policy is mutable to the point that the terms of service even allow for it with the "then-current" phrasing. The entire terms of service are at http://www.mp3.com/my/terms/index.html.
I'll admit, it's a bit paranoid, but I'll stick with my CD-R's for portable MP3's.
Where the value of X-Mailer: is the true measure of a man...
My question is, who is liable?
You borrow a CD from a friend - not illegal, afaik. The software detects it, scans its track info, ships the data to Beam-It and Beam-It registers this as "yours", and now allows you to stream the songs on the CD, even though you don't own it, and even after you've given the CD back to your friend.
Do you click on a button that says "Yes, I own this CD"? That would at least make you liable. Otherwise, would they be liable for sending you music you don't have rights to?
Another thing is the spokenword message saying "Too many open streams. Please close some and continue. You should not share your password."
Why not log in as yourself? Or a dummy login?
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
According to their download page, you can get the software either for Windows or for Macintosh. Seeing as though they've covered both of the major end-user computing platforms, I would hope that eventually they would go ahead and release a Linux port (should users desire one).
For more information, click here.
You can already steal music from the library without this service. Just bring the cd home and either burn a copy of it or rip some mp3s of the tracks on it. This my.mp3.com service adds nothing there. It doesn't even save you the trouble of burning your own mp3s, since it just streams them to you rather than letting you ftp them.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
... which has been around for a while...
(Go check sourceforge.net for Gnome and Java Nap clients)
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Have you tried 'Virtual Turntables'? It's an MP3 player that's geared towards DJs. It includes a auto-mixer function that starts the next track 1-3 sec before the last one ends.
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Banner-ad targeting doesn't bug me -- Imagine, never having to see a banner ad for Korn or LimpBizkit again! Joy! OTOH, it's been a long-standing principle of mine never to give truthful information on any form unless there's a compelling reason (like you want your package to arrive at the correct address).
On the third hand, no invasion of privacy is necessary to compile a list of your likes/dislikes -- mp3.com can track the bands you like and the bands you hate without having your correct name/address/email. All they need is a unique identifier, like your login to the site -- you can feed them bogus demographic data (anyone tracking self-reported demographics should be shot before taking those data seriously anyway).
gomi
Even if a technological crisis hit storage, I think it'd be too late. The 40 gig IDE drives are already falling in price to the point where they're worth buying. That'll hold 60 uncompressed CDs and almost 800 compressed to an level that won't change the playback experience for most users.
I'd be interested to see someone try the streaming of new music. My first instinct were I to buy such a "streaming right" would be to try to find a way to save the stream to my local drive...
But really, you are right, this is just another instance of corporate types trying to get us to give up control of our local data. NC redux. In that, it has nothing really to do with technology and everything to do with control of data.
Control your own data!
The cake is a pie
It's not even the first 8k or so; I've seen it request 203 seconds from a random offset within a track.
:( But notice in your sniffing all the 331 requests and their responses...
The only question remaining is whether it always asks for the same chunk from the CD; if so, this can be put into a database.
I don't have time to mess with it more today, though.
Yep. It definitely looks like a challenge/response pair to me.
Unfortunately I have no real debugging tools here. Someone with softice could do this in a few seconds.
jon
Granted, you are probably listening to NSYNC and Backstreet boys, but generally (i mean REAL music), dont you think that the people who went to the trouble and effort of making music should get paid for it? I'm not claiming to own the CD for ever MP3 i have, but i dont consider myself to *really HAVE* the track unless i have the CD or LP. Besides, half the stuff you download is shitty quality with pops, crackles and squeals. Once again, i must stress this : YOU ARE AN ASS
No one seems to be asking what MP3 gets out of this - and I think it must be pretty obvious, they get a huge database of musical preferences and demographic data that they can then assemble, and (probably) flog to other businesses. At the very least expect banner ads for *only* those bands that you like - or ones that others who own the same music as you - will show up.
In otherwords, to whatever degree, this is one more internet invasion of my privacy should I take advantage of it.
Of course, it is *so* open to abuse that I don't think it is a viable idea anyways.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
They only have Windows & Mac versions of the 'upload' software, but you can play the m3u playlists with any MP3 player, whether Linux, Be or OS X, as long as it can cope with the long URLs they use. This is good for me as I can 'beam' the CDs in from home, and play them at work, without taking them in and possibly losing them.
Note that the URLs for individual tracks expire after an hour, and then they play you a speech message saying "go and make a new playlist". They weren't smart enough to offset the expiration window by the duration of each track, so you can't play an indefinite playlist. They also forgot the 'shuffle' button.
However this does mean you have an hour to download the MP3s they have of your CD, which (assuming you have a good connection) is significantly faster than ripping them yourself.
I suspect CmdrTaco's scripts are more like myplay.com, which is a similar legal MP3 repository, but requires you to do your own ripping.
But this does not mean that you cannot play songs in your playlist under Linux. MP3.com just streams your music to you in the MP3 format. Fire up your favorite browser, make sure you have it set up to load XMMS or other favorite MP3 player and listen away. Unfortunatally you will still have to authenticate your CDs off of a Windows or Mac box; on that note, know if you can run beam-it under wine or VMware?
I have to agree with CmdrTaco on the fact that the chance of abuse is huge though! Whats stopping people from just reverse enineering the CD codes or borrowing their friends CDs for a few seconds to add it to their available tracks?
Alright, I'm gonna be a bit whiny here, but with good reason!! So read on...
1) I want the ORIGINAL my.MP3.com back!! I want my lists of songs I downloaded from MP3.com!!
2) Streaming is cool, but the CD playlist thing is... not needed, unless you are a frequent user, which I am not (I have a life off the computer, you know).
and
3) Let MP3.com be MORE customizable, Like SlashDot! Wow... That would be cool!!
The Gray Wolf
My 80286 is like the Bible: I swear by it every night when I try to run something.
It's not quite as simple as that.
The transaction between the client and server includes not only the standard CDDB foo (number of tracks, total length, byte offsets for the beginning of each track) but also has the first 8k or so of raw data for each track. The only way "piracy" will really work is if someone builds a client that allows a user to rip and store that info in a single file, so that others can use it. I think it basically comes down to a effort vs. return issue, since if you don't have physical access to a given CD, you will have to rely on the generosity of others to get access. That is, somewhere, someone has to stick that CD in a drive and generate the info from it. To get things to a point where it's "beneficial" to a large portion of the internet, it will also attract enough attention to be shut down by law enforcement.
Personally, I don't think it's worth it. Also, since this service is dependent on mp3.com obtaining the CDs that you want to listen to, the LCD factor is high (Lowest Common Denominator) and people who listen to esoteric/hard to find stuff will be screwed. People who want to listen to the Backstreet Boys should be in heaven. People who want to listen to Laibach, or Pop Will Eat Itself may not be so lucky.
If the system was properly designed, it would be very difficult to spoof your possession of a CD without actually having some sort of access to a complete copy of it.
For example, mp3.com could keep a sizable portion or complete copy of the unencoded track around at their site. Then they could ask you to take a random number of bytes at a random offset, append a random key string they specify, and hash it with a strong hash algorithm. On their end, they would do the same, and you'd be denied access if the results did not match. In this case, you'd need to have the sizable portion of the unencoded track on hand to answer their responses - or act as a man in the middle with a friend actually having the CD.
The connection wouldn't need to be encrypted as hashes obtained from sniffed connections would be useless because the key string would be specified by the server and change on every attempt.
Rob, please... this mp3 thing affects absolutely nobody. I could make the claim it's not unlike my own mp3db program and no doubt winamp could say the same. Or xmms for that matter. Or how about the dozens of geeks that were bored and wrote their own perl scripts? This is just noting the obvious.. it has no implications on the majority of readers here...
AFAIK there is nothing illegal about making a copy of CDs you own. (either here in the UK or in the US)
So what is so illegal about storing those CD "archives" at a remote site? Nobody would complain or try to sue you if you stored backup tapes offsite, in fact they would applaude you.
It's the same argument as taping a CD 10 years ago. I may want to tape a CD to listen to in the car, and that is OK. If I then sell or broadcast that tape then I'm breaking the law - I have no problem with that. Fast-forward to today. If I want to listen to music anywhere on my MP3 player then I should be able to.
There's no legal issue here at all. (only the music industry not trusting it's valued customers)
----- Documentation is worth it just to be able to answer all your mail with 'RTFM' - Alan Cox.
And it seems like a strange program...
The Beam it software gets some info from the CD, to identify it. Then it sends that info to mp3.com, to match with their database. If they have that CD in their database, you can listen to the songs from the CD online.
Question: What's the point? If I have the CD, and I have a CD drive, then play the damn thing. As for being portable, CD's are easily portable now.
The big thing seems to be the sales aspect. If you buy a CD from there, then you can listen to the songs while you're waiting for the cd to arrive via snail mail.
Still, I think that this type of marketing can only go so far. Is any company actually having big success in this type of venture? (selling music online) I know that everyone said is was the next big thing, but you have to take that with a grain of salt. Given the option of spending 5 minutes to find a song as an MP3, and buying it for $1.00 or so, I'll take the 5 minutes.. Legality doesn't bother the majority of people. I mean, it's not an easily prosecutable offense, now is it?
"Your honor, this guy stole a song from us and gave it to... errr.. well, 3 people.. costing us a total revenue of.. umm.. $3.95... errr...."
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- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
According to this page, it's also available for the macintosh. I know that doesn't help most linux folk, but c'est la vie.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
I initially thought this would be easy too; I checked it out a little bit. Look at this (simplified) capture.
8 6545,197950
->20 20 20 20 20 00
HELO mail=XXXXXXX@earthlink.net vers=0.90 cver=win004 sern=3933243
0a 20 20 20 20 20
AUTH meth=md5 pass=7998e0845cc98a85930b51212204d619
0a 20 20 20 20 20
MDID time=19739 tkof=150,27502,83547,93115,114317,121907,142117,1
0a 00 00 00 00 00
VFCD mdid=508103
0a 00 00 00 00 00
20 20 20 20 20 00
->RVDT trck=1 sect=18032 nsec=203 rate=22050 chnl=stereo bits=17 size=238728
->(238728 bytes of track data)
0a 20 20 20 20 20
-350 size=238728
---more negotiation snipped---
-231 mdid=508103
Okay.
So near as I can tell, they use a challenge/response scheme for authentication. This is fine, and a little debugging will fill in the details there.
Looks like the MDID setup call passes track offsets; note the parameters strictly increase. I'm guessing that the time= parameter has something to do with the time the TOC on the disc was burned, but I have yet to try to correlate it to actual time in seconds.
After the MDID call, we get 232 back; then the real fun starts.
VFCD kicks off what looks like a pretty solid verificatation process. The server uses 331's to ask for random numbers of seconds from random sector offsets, and the client replies with RVDT's and track data.
If all the tracks are verified, a 231 is replied from the server with the 'mdid', and the connection hangs up.
That's as far as I've gotten.
Looks pretty solid to me thus far. I have yet to try beaming the same disc twice from two different machines; if the verification code always asks for the same #seconds and starting sector, obviously we can build a db, and we're golden.
Anyone interested in continuing this work, drop me a mail.. (jdc@pobox.com)
I'm still not so very sure if this is going to be the future of music. Even though I can download every piece of music I might ever want from the internet I keep on coming back to my (on-line or not) music store to buy my favorite music in hardcopy, complete with a nice booklet maybe for once not a diamond box and a few pictures of my (at that moment) favorite artist.
I want to be able to hold that box, look at it while listening to the music on my home stereo for the first time. I'd be hard pressed to find an attractive software equivalent for that.
Now I suppose there are a lot of people out there that don't need that physical representation of their music but I do and a lot of my friends agree with me.
The day that the only way to obtain the newest music of any of my favorite artists is by downloading an MP3 (or something like that) will be a sad day for me indeed.
My guess is that on-line music will perform a function similar to pay-tv, you subscribe to get a nice selection of music sent to you instead of some lame DJ's selection. Or a live registration of a good concert or a pop-festival.
Maybe they'll even cut back on the commercials if you pay them a little.
Oddly enough I posted this story last week but Slashdot ignored it..... Perhaps because I pointed out that the whole site is an exact carbon copy (check some of the html and layouts) of Myplay.com.
.wav files .wav files to .mp3 files using LAME .wav files
Myplay have been offering an online storage system like this for free for the last 4 months and they don't force you to use their technology, or limit you to streaming only.
So - for all you Unix users who don't want to cart a CD selection back and forth here's an online music HOWTO
(1) Get CD Paraoia or cdda2wav
(2) get LAME
( You can also get GRIP - that's a fancy GUI system that uses GTK - nice and easy)
(3) Extract your favourte CD audio to
(4) encode
(5) Delete the
then....
(6) Get XMMS
(7) Listen to your funky mp3's
Now for the anytime/anywhere part....
(8) go to Myplay.com
(9) Get an account (they're free)
(10) upload your chosen tracks
(11) Listen to them wherever you go
okokok but there's more
If you want to show off your music taste you can assemble your favourite tracks into public playlists which anybody can listen to - so it's like creating a radio show. (they use icecast for this BTW)
Plus they've also got a few free tracks, both from themselves and from affiliates like emusic.com....
SO.... my.mp3.com is not Innovative... it's a copy.
So - why isn't myplay in the related links box?
I C. How shall I hack thee, let me count the ways
- Sniff packets, then fudge up a client
- Repository of track/length sector aka CDDB
- Fake CDaudio driver that returns above info.
- Forge packets for upload to MP3.com
Yet another ill-conceived attempt at enforcing the unenforceable.
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Ok, here's a thought... What's the difference between this and an all-request radio station? Answer: You *own* the CDs already (at least in theory).
Think about it. If there were a request radio station, and you were the only listener, is there a law preventing them from playing whatever you request? So what's to stop MP3.com from just streaming to you personally *ANY* music you choose to listen to? (Regardless album ownership.) It's theoretically no different than request radio.
Yeah, we can *record* a media stream, but I can also record songs off the radio. What's the difference? Just because this is more customized? Because it's on the Internet? Big whoop -- every real life radio station tries to do this exactly: play songs I want to hear. It just so happens that online they can do it to perfection through mass customization.
I don't think MP3.com has gone far enough! I shouldn't need the CD to listen to music - I should be able to listen to ANYTHING they have available.
-Computers hate being anthropomorphized.
This seems like a huge waste of bandwidth to me.
Twenty CDs and a backpack has a higher bandwidth then I have at work...
(Or maybe it is just this new 20 gig HD I got here at work. I've been copying CDs to it for a week now. I have almost a hundred here. Why would I want to download each time I listen when I can just save them to the HD? This seems better than wasting company bandwidth each time I get the urge for NIN.)
Why, oh why is everyone pushing all this connectivity stuff when the thing that is improving the least in most computer systems is the bandwidth? You can get a 27 gig drive for $200 now. That just cries out for new applications, but all these companies can come up with is new ways to send too much information through tiny little holes. I don't want my music to skip just because I'm downloading a new Quake patch.
New app: cheap motherboard+large hard drive+good sound card->awesome stereo.
The cake is a pie
I emailed them the day it came out, and asked them about a linux port. I got an email back from an engineer saying they are working on it as fast as they can. Then I got an email from some suit saying "thanks for the email, blah, blah, blah" that didn't even address my question. A good friend of mine wqorks for mp3.com, and he says that almost everyone there sues linux, and a linux version is definatly coming. Another question, off topic, how come I submitted this story last week and it was rejected? Sure, it's not a great slasjdot story, but now the news is 1 week late making it even less interesting. Just my 2 cents.
Personally its not God I dislike, its his fan club I cant stand (bash.org)
I did some Packet Snffing of the BeamIT client-to-MP3.com last night and determined that the CD info sent to MP3.com is not encrypted, making it quite easy to proxy-spoof mp3.com into thinking you own CDs that you do not.
The data on the CD sent seems to go a track-at-a-time and isn't the conventional format that you send CD data to CDDB. Instead, it seems to focus on the sector start and end positions for each track and some additional information.
Nontheless, I suspect that unless MP3.com reworks their protocol to use encryption, it will jsut be a matter of time before someone fully reverse-engineers the protocoll and "Beams" hundreds of CD's that they do not own. I wonder what the recording industry will think of that?