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Rent Music Over the Net

Posted by michael on from the none-of-this-rent-to-own-stuff-either dept.

NerveGas writes: "Financial Times is reporting that two competing services, both backed by major music labels, are about to offer legal music downloads. For $9.95 per month, you can download up to 100 songs per month. The catch? Cancel your service, and you lose the ability to hear *any* of the songs that you've downloaded. There are other caveats, as well - but at least it's a start." So what happens after you've got your hard drive filled with rented music and the monthly fee goes up to $199.95/month? Pay up, or lose it all...

4 of 381 comments (clear)

  1. If only there were a way to hear music for free... by mttlg · · Score: 5, Funny

    Imagine if you could get multiple free streams of music broadcast to you wherever you are, for free. Something where you just turn on some receiving device and select a stream. Something wireless, with receivers that could be placed in cars or worn on the body. The audio content could even be recorded if someone just wanted a copy of a song and didn't care too much about quality. If someone could come up with something like this, nobody would even think of paying for something as silly and worthless as this rental scam...

  2. ATTN: Slashdot management by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 3, Funny
    When browsing the site today, I noticed a small, probably typographical error.

    I would appreciate it if you could fix this by reposting this article into the 'It's Funny. Laugh.' section.

  3. Re:If only there were a way to hear music for free by Sloppy · · Score: 3, Funny

    It will never happen. The server side would require expensive infrastructure, probably big metal towers and electricity and stuff like that. The only way they would be able to afford to send out the music for free, would be if they were to completely commercialize it.

    I'm just speculating, of course ;-) but there would probably be ads in between the songs, and the songs themselves would be extremely pre-filtered and not an accurate representation what the musician population actually creates.

    So I don't think your pipe dream is ever going to happen, except perhaps in a perverted form. Keep dreaming, you foolish idealist.

    --
    As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
  4. I have a better idea! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Give me some money and I, Fred Durst, will come to your house and take a big, juicy dump on your floor. You will eat it and enjoy it.

    Does that sound awful? Don't worry, it's essentially similar to the RIAA/MTV/MPAA business model. You've been doing it for years!

    Also, I have an extremely tiny penis.

    Sincerely,
    Fred Durst