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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.
Is RMS singing the "Free Software Song". Please, Microsoft, make this available ASAP!
Ceci n'est pas une signature
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!
The one article only states:
'Fans can copy tracks, burn them to CDs and transfer them to other devices as much as they want "within reason"'
That leaves a lot of wiggle room, and truthfully, given Microsoft's recent warming to DRM in general, I wouldn't be surprised if the service leaves customers with only partially usable music.
I always save my last mod point to mod up a good troll. You people are too serious.
Well, I feel comforted.
Maybe I can preempt the lot who will say "sniff it doesn't run on Linux" etc by saying that it's quite natural that Apple's iTunes is for MacOSX only...
That's not surprising given that both are services on competing platforms, and will not want to repackage essentially the same catalogue just with WMP and iTunes formats (and Apple eyecandy) to separate them.
This online music thing is interesting, I think I'll be sticking to mutella though.
Conversion Rate Optimisation French / English consultant
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.
Gold tracks are new singles, available as soon as they are sent to radio stations - up to six weeks before the CDs reach shops.
I guess the whole "one price for all singles, including pre-release and exclusives" was a bit too complicated for them to try and replicate.
...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
All they want is:
The Server OS market
The Database market
The Office market
The Home PC market
The Handheld market
The Mobile market
The Game market
The TV market
The Instant messaging market
The E-mail market
And the hearts of men are easily corrupted.
------- Look mum! I have posted another Slashdot comment! --------
Try the sample download in moz/opera etc - even spoofing user agent it doesn't work. That is until you copy the download url from the source.
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've got a question-
I'm under the impression that piracy of music/software is worse is Europe than in the US. Does Microsoft stand a chance on this front, given their terrible reputation in Europe as it is?
Any Europeans out there care to enlighten me?
Considering that WMP 9 is the core of this service and is also (coincidentally) the focus of the recent EU complaint against monopolistic Microsoft, I see potential for the EU to cause this venture major problems.
I was quite pleased when I read about it on the beeb this morning, so I visited the site to see if was workable. I'd quite like to be able to legally buy music since the security loopholes enabling my Kazaa usage have been closed down at work recently, and the piece of wet string that connects me to the internet from my home in the English countryside isn't up to the job of downloading music.
Could I find any music I wanted to buy. No. And when I did a search for a song I'd heard on the radio this morning - typical impulse buy mentality, I was told I couldn't buy it because of my location. WTF!
(Anti-RIAA Troll): But we loves the online music, especially.
(Anti-Microsoft Troll): But it's Microsoft. They load it down with DRM
(Anti-RIAA Troll): But we can hacks the DRM, yes we can.
(Anti-Microsoft Troll): But you're paying money to the evils Microsoft.
(Anti-RIAA Troll): But we're only paying for one songs at a time! We saves money from not buying whole albums at a times...
So what next? MicroSoft cant stand to have a business model they dont incorporate into their OS. I suppose they might go ahead and make a music service built directly into Media Player 10 thus shutting out other music services.
Of course the RIAA could contend that with restrictions.
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
RMS singing the Free software song can be found at the link at the bottom.
.au, .mp3, and .ogg! Scroll down a fifth of the way to find it, or it is the fifth item in the list. There are lots of other songs there too. Some are even pretty good!
It is available in
Songs
- You require a Windows machine with Windows Media Player 9. That presumably rules out all Mac and Linux users ?
- Compression is used so it won't be as good quality as a CD.
- You need a broadband connection really to make regular use of the service.
- It sounds like there is some form of DRM (press release is vague about it).
- You don't get any artwork/booklet save for a small JPEG screenshot of the front cover.
- Albums cost 7.99 pounds to download, whereas I can buy a CD (higher quality, artwork, no DRM) for 8.99 pounds from CD WOW!.
- I like solo female singer-songerwriters - good luck on finding Nanci Griffith, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Sam Brown or Shawn Colvin on there. And no sign of The Beatles (unless you count a covers band !) on there of course.
Just about the only good thing I could see about the service is the availability of non-album tracks that only previously appeared on now-deleted CD singles (e.g. "Humpty Dumpty" by Aimee Mann came out in January 2003 - I never saw the CD single in the stores I go to - and it has a non-album track on it). Apart from that, you're better every single time buying the CD album or single (the latter can be 1.99 pounds or 2.99 pounds in most cases for 3 tracks).It has been a consistent part of the iTMS that about half of all songs sold are purchased as albums. You are not the only one who wants the whole artists experience. And for those who don't (or don't care), there is the a la carte option.
It won't be up to Microsoft's usual standards unless it's mondo exploitable. Let's hope they deploy it on .NET servers for years of good yuks.
-- thinkyhead software and media
1. You purchase the song for
2. You get access to download the song for 3 days.
3. At the 3rd day, a team of Microsoft employees comes to your house to remove all the songs from your computer and electronic devices. They destroy all cdrs, Pen drives, flash cards or anything else you could have used to pirate music.
4. The microsoft team reformats your hard drive, and reinstalls windows at a discounted cost of $129.
5. A private detective who has been following you over the past 3 days, visits everyone you've come in contact with and performs the same process on them.
* This process is repeated once for each additional song purchased.
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.