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Audiogalaxy Returns as Pay Service

Posted by michael on from the building-a-worse-mousetrap dept.

Triv writes "I just got an email from Audiogalaxy explaining how they have come back from the dead as a subscription service, labelled as Rhapsody."

6 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. Erm, its a streaming service by joebp · · Score: 5, Informative
    5. Can I download MP3s?
    No. Rhapsody is a streaming-only service and does not offer MP3 downloads.
    So, I'm paying $10 a month for no tangible product?

    Woo, come here Microsoft, I want to rent a new OS!

    1. Re:Erm, its a streaming service by Squareball · · Score: 4, Insightful

      well you pay for cable TV right? No tangible product.. AND you have to have a TV. This wont work becuase you have to have broadband to use it really.. and $10 a month on top of 50 a month for broadband isn't worth it as long as there is still systems like Kazaa

    2. Re:Erm, its a streaming service by RussGarrett · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Lots of people ask me what the goal is.

      The goal is for you to be able to play any song, anywhere you are, in CD quality, for less per month than the price of a cd. If you're too cheap to pony up, then you can listen to ads instead, but no more than 10m worth for every hour you listen. A light DRM in place is fine provided the technology exists to stream this anyplace you are. Who wants or needs downloads if you can just stream it whenever you want. Disks are so overrated. If the tech isn't there do make that happen, then screw the DRM and let those that will pirate pirate and those that will pay pay. You'll never get them to behave otherwise anyway.

      That's the goal. First person to make it happen wins everything.

      Tom Pepper, Nullsoft

      Think about it. If you had unlimited cheap streaming access to any music anywhere in the world, what's the point in downloading? There is none. You save many gigabytes of hard disk space too. With increasing bandwidth to the home, this is only going to get more popular. If AG can pull this off, and they can pull it off well, they will have my great respect (and my $10).

  2. Re:Unbelievable crap. by mickwd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "If there was no protection to intellectual property, people would not be encouraged to share knowledge with others. Writers would not write, inventors would not invent, artists would not....."

    Well I guess this explains why Britain has never had any art or culture or scientific discoveries to speak of. Or France. Or Italy (what was all that Reneissance stuff anyway ?). The (Ancient) Greeks. The Egyptians. The Chinese. The Japanese. The Indian sub-continent. Many other countries I haven't got room to mention, or know little enough about. What heathens we've all been compared to the current cultural output from the USA.

    Sorry - I know there is some good art, literature, music and science being made in the USA today. I'm just saying you're over-stating your point.

  3. Give me THE SAME SERVICE and I'll pay. by dpbsmith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Once again... I'm willing to pay, but I have to GET something as good as I used to get.

    There's no way that "Over 17,000 albums by over 7,000 top artists" is going to come close to the richness and variety we got from of individual fans trading their individual favorites.

    I am now going to make a quick test on four items I obtained from the "real" Audiogalaxy a few months ago. This is an authentic test, I do not know yet what I am going to find. Bernard Cribbins, 'Ole in the Ground; Harry Champion, "I'm Enerey the Eighth;" Nervous Norvus, "Ape Call;" and the MIT Chorallaries, "We Are The Engineers."

    Well, it seems you can't search for individual titles unless you actually join, but with great labor you can page through the artist list, and I find:

    Bernard Cribbins: Nope.

    Harry Champion: Nope.

    Nervous Norvus: Nope.

    The MIT Chorallaries: Nope.

    Now, someone is saying "What kind of market is there for the MIT Chorallaries, for pete's sake?" Well, all I can say is, when Audiogalaxy was for real, _I_ wanted to hear them and _someone_ out there wanted to share them.

    Without SHARING, all you're ever going to get is Britney Spears and Elvis Presley.

    --

    "How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!

  4. Re:audiogalaxy screwed me over by jacobito · · Score: 5, Informative

    What is to prevent somebody from releasing some open source software that is a clone of AG?

    Actually, the Open AGS project is working on an open source Audiogalaxy server. I believe that all they have right now is a design document, but I wish them luck, and look forward to their results.