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Microsoft, OD2 Start European Music Service
useosx writes "Reuters is reporting that 'Microsoft Corp. announced on Thursday a pact with Europe's biggest digital music outfit, OD2, to form the continent's first major a la carte online download service. ...
The move marks the first time European consumers can purchase song downloads off the Internet for under one euro ($1.13), and without requiring a monthly subscription, bringing the fee in line with the popular Apple Computer iTunes service, which is not yet available in Europe.'" Other stories: the Guardian, BBC.
And what, pray tell, would be "unreasonable"?
I think they'll make buckets of money; it requires Windows Media Player 9 which has a much larger user base than that of the Mac and the Apple player which is getting half a million song downloads a week.
Trolling is a art,
British FreeBSD & Linux user here.
Even though we Europeans seem to be pulling ahead in Open Source deployments we still can't get a music store that doesn't lock people further into Windows... shame!
It will be a good business for them only if they have half the benefits Apple had with its music store.
However, according to Reuters, it is for "music fans with Microsoft's Windows Media Player version 9", which I personally find restrictive. Maybe a more popular format such as MP3 would have been better.
Mr. Jobs! Where's my music store here in Europe, please?
Engage!
With this new emphasis on singles I wonder if artists will be motivated to put together whole albums. Many of my favorite songs are the the ones that did not get much air play but were found on albums that had a hit or two on them. I hope that artists do not become driven to work on "hits" and ignore the practice of making the songs that they themselves enjoy. The practice of producing collections may become rare which would be bad for music.
...oh whoops, the DRM is only 100 times more restrictive and whoops, the WMA quality is worse then AAC. Kind of reminds me of the difference between OS X and Windows XP.
Let's not kid ourselves: for all of Microsoft's talk of "innovation", the one thing they're really good at is seeing another idea that works, making their own version of it, then making it "good enough" that their desktop monopoly can make money off of it.
So, let's take a look at their new music service:
Media Type: Windows Media Audio 9.
The Good: No big surprise, and depending on who you ask, it sounds better than MP3's at the same format. Anybody with either a new computer or someone who upgrades to Windows Media Player 9 should have it work just fine.
The Bad: Nobody but a Windows user can use it. But since the other big competitor Apple only lets it work with Macs, that means that a 4% user base is now hitting against a 90% user base - so it's all balanced in the end, I guess. Apple should have their service in Windows at the end of this year, and Windows Media Player 9 should be available "someday" for OS X, so then we can compare apples to apples (no pun intended).
Depending on who you ask, Apple's use of AAC isn't really a full open standard, since they've got the security hooks inside - but it's a far more open standard than WMA (Windows Media Audio). Any chance we'll see either one on Linux? Anyone? Guys?
The License:
The Good: No subscription fee, which I think is the #1 draw of the new music formats. Most of the songs are around 0.99 euros, which comes out to be $1.15 or so per track. And you can copy some to your portable players or burn CD tracks with them.
The Bad: So far, this is where Apple's service is kicking the other two's services right in the Jimmy. Apple's system is cut and dried: Every song, up to 3 computers, unlimited iPods, unlimited CD burns.
With Buymusic.com and Microsoft's service - it depends on the song. Maybe you can put it in a portable, maybe not. Maybe you can burn it, maybe not. So that means before you buy each song you'll have to either say "Well, I will only play these songs on this computer forever!", or say "Hm - let's see what the license is before I make my Ultimate Dance Track for the Anime Pool Party this Saturday.".
It's something the "average joe" won't care about - until one day, they go to do something, and don't understand why Song A can be copied/burned, but Song B can not. Will Apple use this in their marketing? Who knows - and odds are, people won't think enough to care.
The Selection:
The Good: 200,000 songs to start off with.
The Bad: No clue - I haven't seen the line up.
Final score:
Undecided. Microsoft's new music service looks more like BuyMusic.com's, only it's in Europe. Same media format, same licensing structure - only it's going to be inside the Windows Media Player and not just a web page for downloading.
Odds are, Apple's service will still be better with the "one license for every track" rule. But as history has shown, Micorosoft does not necessarily have to be "better" than the competition - usually "good enough" will do to make them money.
Either way, if Apple wants to get the bucks before competitor #1 eats the market, it needs to get its ass moving on its Windows service and those deals in Europe.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
Anyone still wondering why MS is under investigation in Europe for using Media Player to extend their monopoly now has their answer. The recording cartel and the OS monopolists have got together to tie up the market for downloadable singles. The result overpriced tracks, low quality, DRM and no choice.
I think they'll make buckets of money; it requires Windows Media Player 9 which has a much larger user base than that of the Mac and the Apple player which is getting half a million song downloads a week.
Apple has good karma when it comes to music, like their "Rip, Mix, Burn" slogan, and people in some sense trust them not to be unreasonable. With Windows, I don't know of anyone that has the same attitude.
Another point is that Apple users very often have the Apple Ipod, while Windows users have pretty much everything, much of which probably doesn't support the DRM too well, if WMA at all.
I'll definately consider the Apple iTMS when it comes to Windows. But this service? Sorry, but I don't feel like having Microsoft control my digital rights (after the purchase, oh wait, the licencing), I don't trust them to. Isn't that what this "Trusted computing" is all about? Trust them? Ain't going to happen.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
No, they just want to milk people for more money. They start with the price high and give it early, and only the trendsetters buy it, albeit at the inflated price, then they bring it down to the regular price, and the masses buy it. Thats what many companies do.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
I work in the games industry, and am fairly active in the warez scene (I like to see when games I work on make it to IRC/ftp servers). I also live in Europe...
:)
Almost all of the biggest and best warez groups are from Europe, but most of the sources for downloads are in the USA. This has been the case for many years, and doesn't really seem to have changed much since the widespread availability of broadband in Europe.
For what its worth, the quickest a game I've worked on has been released was about 4 weeks before it went gold (leaked by someone who works for the publisher, we had unique IDs in the builds
Game dev and music blog
Good artists are not motivated by album sales but by some internalization of the music they are creating. Great artists will never stop making the music they desire to have heard (and hear themselves). The real question is whether they will ever be heard (or worse; have the motivation to share the music with others).
...And it is being headed by M$. :->
The major problem posed to the artist in this situation is his/her inability to be included on whatever listings that are distributed (which is similar to any major recording industry). The major difference between the RI and this situation is the lack of competition (why get new music?).
"this is the gloaming"
radiohead
It's also illegal to jay walk, speed, and smoke marijuana, but you can see how well we've conquered those horrible offenses. Frankly anyone that wants to download music is already doing it and I don't see the recording companies declaring bankruptcy do you? Even if they lost 50% of their income they'd still be making billions in profits. Clearly many people buy CDs whether they can get the songs free or not, so why can't both co-exist? Leave P2P networks alone, let the kids share their music, and keep raking in your billions of dollars and STFU.
To make obscene amounts of money.
Apple has announced a Windows version of iTunes, and thus the iTMS, will be available by the end of the year. I believe someone even posted the ad seeking programmers for the project here.
I am a believer of momentum and curves.