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Home Stereo Equipment With Online Music Purchasing
nebulous bee writes "Yahoo is reporting on a new piece of home stereo equipment going on sale in Japan that has an ethernet port that can be linked directly to an online music store. You can purchase new music using the unit's built-in LCD display and hear it 'instantly'. No PC required. There are no plans to sell it yet outside of the land of the rising sun."
Else, oh no, someone might make a copy of the music they purchased for themselves.
For some reason, having my stereo hooked up to the net buying songs seems just a little too close to pay-per-use than I'm comfortable with.
Now when this piece of hardware breaks I lose my entire music collection? No Thanks!
I mean... no PC nedded...
That means, store goes out of business... protocol changes... not to mention if you decide for a USB modem... SUCKER!!!
This will never work.
I mean, geez, like it's really difficult to buy music using a PC.
how long until
There are no plans to sell it yet outside of the land of the rising sun."
Good. I don't want my stereo, or anything else besides my computer, networked and DRM'd to death. I'm starting to not even want my computer networked.
It will be Linux based, and will work with NetMD disks.
I guess this is what we are going to in the near future, all of our appliances will have some sort of computer inside them, a computer that's capable of doing what the appliance needs. /. story about a refrigerator that allows you to buy groceries online, it's just a matter of time.
So later we may read a
The IT section color scheme sucks.
Could this be the next step for Apple? It would make sense to me. A $500 to $700 device that looks good, is linked to your Mac and iTMS account, and looks really, really cool. I give it a year to six months.
OH no! Little Johnny accidentally bought 5,000 songs on the home stereo. There goes his college education.
Are you suggesting that Japan is geographically challenged?
Is it me, or does this seem quite racist? I kind of sarcastic jab at another culture?
It's just you.
I would expect such blatant racism on Fark, but on Slashdot? Mods please ban this asshole.
Why would anyone ever purchase information? That's illogical
Since when has any society been logical?
racist of who? the submitter for calling it "the land of the rising sun"? or racist of japan for not selling it abroad? either case, I think it's just you. However, I am not Japanese, so I can't really decide.
"provincial" might be a better term if the last is what you meant.
It kind of reminds me of the time that an inexperienced editor for the WSJ once changed a stock report to say that the market was "in the African-American."
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
They have JukeBoxes that do this in the U.S. now. I always request "Kokomo"
machine can do that too. So what is so revolutionary about this? I have been using an old IBM Stinkpad as a stereo system for quite some time now. Sounds great when hooked up to a 600W stereo amplifier with 12 inch woofers and an array of horn tweeters. Stinkpads are good for something after all...
when the box craps out and you lose all your saved songs you didn't burn to the mini-disk? And I can see it now.... "You seem to like Britteny Spears songs, so I took the liberty of purchasing her entire new album for you" :-)
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Of course they have no plans to sell it here in the States ... Microsoft would accuse them of being monopolistic for only allowing the songs to be played on that stereo!
topreacher@signature.slashdot.org 1% rm -rf sig
You can purchase new music using the unit's built-in LCD display and hear it 'instantly'. No PC required.
It's been suggested that Apple should try this very thing -- Wi-Fi functionality built into an iPod that would allow it to download music from the iTunes Music Store via wireless broadband and making the computer entirely optional.
Nobody's said that Apple's actually pursuing the technology, but you gotta admit it's a mighty good idea.
When that rogue nation ICBM hits in a town near you, and the EMP wipes out all your ethernet purchased "eeeemusic" from your "peeceees", I'll be warm in cozy in my bomb shelter with a can of spam and my vinyl records -thank you very much.
--
It's called an iPod. Just add a $2 stereo Y cable from any old electronics store and it plugs into every rack system known to man.
--
I Might like this.
Linux based device that lets you purchase the songs, and you can use them on any other like devices through the mini-disk - or, as the article says, any other "normal" entertainment system. (Or just mini-disk accepting ones, or can you burn to CD? Details are lacking on that regard.)
Charges $2 per song file - a bit much, but if its DRM free I could go for that.
The biggest question is of course the format. Is this a lossy format, so we're losing some quality, and when we burn it to a mini-disk it puts it in "normal" music mode (much like the iTunes store can burn AAC/MP3 files to a standard Audio CD), or some lossless format - probably the former, as the latter would require tons of storage space.
Lots of questions, but based on the statements of the article, it actually sounds fairly non-DRM friendly. Might be worth a checkout.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
The winner will be whoever gets this technology into wi-fi mp3 players. But then again, a bluetooth connection between PC and stereo would be pretty sweet.
I would also like to see a way to play a song once for a lower price than buying it outright.
Maybe partying will help...
I can import one and get all of the new Shoyu Weeni tunes.
If you don't get it, you need to watch more Harvey Birdman.
====
Crudely Drawn Games
So what happens with a piece of kit like this? If I lose my stereo, or buy a new one, do I have to buy my music again? How on earth is this different from the situation with Windows XP nowadays, where I have to beg and scrape with Microsoft to let me use the software I bought and paid for if I buy a new PC?
I've said it once, and I'll say it again. Digital media companies are trying to have their cake and eat it too. What's funny to me is that they will end up getting exactly what they want from digital music, and won't lose a thing in the long run from P2P. What is it? Iron-fisted control over our music. You have a new device? Pay us again to listen to your music on it. You lost your music? Too bad, you're the idiot, even though it would cost us next to nothing to let you download it again.
Bah!
it's called Pay-per-view.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
( ) fully addressed my question
( ) partially addressed my question but could be more complete or detailed
( ) did not address my question at all
[ SUBMIT! ]
1996 called. It wants its naive rhetoric back.
Which reminds me, I really should consider changing my sig. Is there really anybody left that I'm mocking with it?
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Please post your Social Security and credit card numbers, please. Information should be shared freely.
iTunes -> Amp -> Speakers.
Everything else can go fuck itself 'cause music-wise, I'm done.
And tomorrow, Microsoft will announce that this service is "too limiting" and will announce their competing service.
www.eFax.com are spammers
What? You mean the U.S. doesn't get daylight anymore? bummer.
...richie - It is a good day to code.
Even if this came to the States I couldn't use it. Thanks Apple, thanks bunches.
So as a person who is a heavy music buyer, audio freak, and computer lover, you think I and others would be gun ho about these music services. Nope, I'm continuing to buy CDs. I recently decided to build my own stereo appliance, since there doesn't seem to be any affordable home players out there that support OGG and FLAC. At least there is now a portable that does.
That would be excellent! I can't wait to install a mod-chip for the refridgerator...
Gives new meaning to "free as in beer"!
I knew this was comming. Pay for play jukeboxes in your home. Say goodby to your cd folks, in ten years they'll be phased out. Ok, I'm exaggerating. The infrastructure isn't in place in the U.S. and may never be. Even so, I have no doubt this is the direction the music industry wants to go, and boy am I hoping they fail.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
About six months ago I ditched my stereo. I was moving to a new apartment and didn't want to move a big bulky stereo so I sold it to the kid down the street. I already owned an iPod (5GB model), so I bought a nice set of computer speakers and that's my new stereo set-up.. It's small, sounds great in my small apt, and is easy to move.
before an iPod adapter for this? Kinda like the Siruis boombox.
Seems like a hell of a digital hub product. As long as there are no ads and same price (or cheaper) for the iTunes music store, I see this doing well.
But then again... I'm not very good at holding my breath.
Get paid to code OSS
There are some interesting differences in Japan's music industry that should be considered.
1) cd prices are fixed, at least for a certain time period after the release. when i lived there it was 3000 yen (US$27) for an album and 1000yen (US$9)for a single.
2) they have a much stronger emphasis on singles over albums. mini-cd singles are sold in huge numbers, for 1000 yen.
3) they have CD rental shops much the way many countries have video/dvd rental shops. I think albums rent for like 400 yen and singles 200 yen? Can't remember.
Therefore, this is a country whose music industry is not as concerned with home copying of the music (otherwise they wouldn't rent them), has people convinced a single is worth 1000 yen and so selling them as downloads for 210 yen can be successful even though this is like twice what apple charges, and has a music buying public that is used to buying songs one at a time instead of buying albums.
Don't bother going to college. In fact, if you're in school drop out now regardless of your grade level. If you have kids, pull them out or don't send them to school to begin with. There is after all, no value in any of the information that will be learned.
All jobs are based on information and experience, even McDonalds' fry cooks. Economies give a society order. If you want to promote your utopia, figure out a logical argument that will pursuade the people. Until them, I will consider your theory illogical and continue purchasing information I consider valuable.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
All CD's and Stereo junk is gone: replaced with iPod.
All DVD's are gone: replaced with divx on single 250 gig drive.
All photo's are gone: scanned and sitting as high quality jpgs on computer.
How to mod this puppy into a Linux server.
IM-not-so-HO, calling Japan the 'land of the rising sun' is as racist as calling Chicago the 'windy city'. Another case of PC going haywire...
musicians don't want a reasonable living; they want to be successful. guess who helps with that? the record companies. most of the ones that deserve to be really successful never get heard by enough people, though...
Your right, why pay for it when I can simply jump on a p2p network, download a file, realize that it's only half the song, download another file , realize that it's a virus, download another file, verify that it's the correct song, startup my CD Burning software, burn it to a CD and finally play it in my stereo.
OR... just pay the 2 bucks, download it and play it on my stereo.
When my roomate and I redid our apartment with wifi we figured out we had a few more ports we could play with, so we dug out an old p200, set it to pick up a shoutcast from an ip range (so it would pick up either my shoutcast or my roomate's). Instant jukebox for our home theater. We even got a wireless keyboard, mounted it to the wall and trade off the reciever to whoever is broadcasting for a party. Less than 100 bucks in parts and i see a virtually identical system in the Best Buy ad for $400. God bless being a dork.
It's not stupid. It's advanced.
Just think, you could spend a $5 to have your songs bumped to the top of the queue in your living room! And all of this without a PC!
Any music put on harddrives is almost always inferior to regular cd's.
I can see where they are going with this.
An IPOD sound system.
But that's why I have a computer.
Don't need it.
Anyways I always buy American quality stereo systems.
Three Letter Acronyms. Argh. LCD Display = Liquid Crystal Display Display
So it's an in-home "buy" button for the LabelGate service. Great. One more scheme to perpetuate the myth that record companies are still necessary.
On the positive side, one more potentially nifty piece of hackable home media center hardware that will be available cheap when it's discontinued.
The wife threw me out the house so I moved into a small flat and replaced her with a Palm.
Sure it's not your five-foot mega-spiffy setup that costs $10,000 and is distinct enough to let you hear a pin drop, but with all the allergens in the NE stuffing me up I usually can't hear a pin drop in the real world anyway. My desktop is all the music center I'll ever need, and it also plays games and finds free porn. Let's see your MP3 stereo do that.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
you can download britney on these????
AND SHES SINGLE?
sweet.
[I can picture a world without war, without hate. I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it]
"Unless Any Music decides to make radical changes to their service model, a Windows-based version of this hardware will still remain a closed system, where owners cannot access content from other services. Additionally, users of this are limited to music from LabelGate's Music Store. As I mentioned earlier, this is a drawback for Windows users, who expect choice in music services, choice in devices, and choice in music from a wide-variety of music services to burn to a CD or put on a portable device,"
You're not paying for the information when you go to school. You're paying for a service - the service of having it taught to you. The information itself can be free; just go to the library.
No, its not racist.
Its like calling the US the stars and stripes.
Or Canada the maple leaf or something
The description of the flag, a national symbol, is from what I know not racist whatsoever.
Come on now...
[I can picture a world without war, without hate. I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it]
Yep, you're right. I encourage actually paying for information. This, in your warped view, means I would encourage not paying for labor.
It is your view that would bring a return to this form of thinking by not paying a segment of people their true value. Slavery was bad and is bad precisely because it takes advantage of people by depriving them of the worth of their actions (in this case labor). Your theory is an extension of this. You would unfairly eliminate the value of those who are knowledgable, creative, or expirienced. In other words, just about everybody.
I suggest you take a step back and really rationalize your viewpoint. When you formulate a logical argument, rather than just accusing me of ignorance, then I will consider what you have to say.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
You can purchase new music using the unit's built-in LCD display and hear it 'instantly'. No PC required.
It's always amazed me how high tech gadgets are marketed as being "not computers" when that's exactly what they are! Things like the "Earthlink Mailstation" that allows you to "check your e-mail without a computer". I'm pretty sure I've even seen advertizing for TiVo claiming that it wasn't a "computer". Amazingly, Joe Blow consumers seem to not even think of gaming consoles as computing devices! I realize that this is done so as not to scare away the technilogically illiterate, but I still reserve the right to incredulity every time these claims are made! Seriously, without computing technology how do people think these things work? Little men with pointy shoes and long beards reaching to their knees inside the case?
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
Now I'm really confused, I don't smoke!!
Why wait? Move to North Korea, where it's illegal your State Radio off.
"If you're thinking what I'm thinking, you're right." -
I'd suggest you are paying for both information and service, probably weighted more heavily on the information side.
I went to school and learned a great deal more than I could read in a book. My professors were all very qualified and imparted on my much knowledge.
If all that was required for information was a book, the only qualification needed to be a professor would be the ability to read. This is not the case, however. Why do you suppose that is?
Also, go into a job interview and say all your qualifications come from what you've read at the library. I doubt you will be hired.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
To have your music locked to your stereo. No thanks. I have enough trouble connecting computers to the Internet, when my stereo wants to connect, that's where I draw the line.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
You know, I've seen this argument made by quite a number of people. Yet, though this seems to be used to justify the idea of using Kazaa and friends to download copies of songs, I never see in the news where suddenly musicians are receiving checks and money orders in the mail from random listeners who downloaded their music via P2P and decided to pay the $1 or so per song/album whatever.
Essentially, put up or shut up. You don't like the rules? Fine, shut up and deal. Don't buy the music. But don't listen to it either. Whether you or anyone else likes it or not, it is illegal to simply grab music en masse from the internet that you have not purchased and that was not given to you by the copyright holder (or legal representative).
And frankly, even if you did pay for the music by sending in this, thus far mythical, $1 check to your favorite artist, it still wouldn't constitute appropriate payment as that is not what has been authorized by, again, the copyright holder (again, or legal representative). If you *do* get that authorization, bully for you. You've scored a $1 album. Otherwise, too bad, thanks for playing.
Go ahead, write a novel. It's just information, right? You don't mind if I just download it and then distribute it to the whole world without requiring anyone to actually buy it from you, do you? Or perhaps I could just send you whatever I feel like sending you, regardless of any terms you may have set forth? Oh, it *is* fine for you? Great, but why then, when you disagree with how others have chosen to have their material distributed, are you suddenly right and they are wrong? It's their choice to make, not yours.
Frankly, I don't want a "buy" button on my stereo. Too easy to push when drunk.
-- $G
I know that it's fairly simple to serve songs from a linux machine to iTunes through Rendevous.
Are there any clients for the Apple Rendevous music protocol (I have no idea what the protocol's name is).
This seems like a fairly decent way to share music around in the house between multiple servers and clients. I already have a Linux machine in the TV/Stereo mix, and music is played via NFS.
It seems like Rendevous would allow for more flexible and dynamic combinations of stuff. For example, when a friend comes over with a laptop. He can just share music to the main stereo, with no hassle about permissions to copy files, etc.
plus-good, double-plus-good
I wasted 7 minutes on my sunday afternoon that I would have wasted doing some other inane thing.... Like washing my BMW 7 series or armor-alling my Hummer's tires or maybe watching tv naked in the living room with a bowl of jello.
you are out 2 bucks.
sounds like I'd be ahead of you by downloading it.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Apparently it has "an ethernet port that can be linked directly to a music store."
I don't particularly want my hi-fi to stick out the side of a music store and nor do I want to buy miles of ethernet cable and a whole lot of repeaters.
Powered by onion juice.
if you had a beowulf cluster of these things?
The CB App. What's your 20?
This makes sense for urban Japan. Broadband prices went through the floor recently(http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.08/ pipedream_pr.html), and now all my friends have great 24/7 broadband connections.
This should really give iTunes a run for it's money. I believe Japanese people like fully integrated solutions... and this looks like it could deliver.
Onkyo TX-NR900 Photo
Basically and ethernet port on the back of a receiver. Using THEIR software, you can connect to 'Internet Radio' ( shoutcast and such ), as well as local mp3/WMA shares.
Nothing new here...
--Chemguru
If they had a system that enabled on-line music publishing I know several people who would sign up...Of course, they'd need to support the web pages.
(Mind you, I didn't say I'd be willing to listen. Wanting to publish your music, and having decent music to publish are two different things. But then I won't buy CDs, either. And even before I had political reasons, my selection was quite limited, so what do I know.)
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Wouldn't you be better served by replaing her with a handspring?
"Smoking helps you lose weight - one lung at a time" -- A. E. Neumann
Seems like a hell of a digital hub product
Actually, All-In-One products kinda run contrary to the 'hub' idea.
... finding out that your friends bought 500 songs, while you were passed out drunk in the corner with the dog.
Year, I look forward to that day...
40% Funny, 40% Insightful, 40% Informative, 40% Dolomite
A college degree simply states that you know the material...or at least should. I know many people that didn't know shit when they graduated, and many that knew more before they even entered. The material in the book is exatly the same, but you have no proof that you _know_ it if all you did was read the book.
http://students.washington.edu/djwatson
I'm suing the RIAA for selling me their audible crack, also known as 'music'. They hooked me with a low quality 'top 40' freebie when I was only eight. I couldn't help myself, all the other kids were doing it. My school teacher even encouraged me to try it. I've been an adict for so many years now that I have no hope of ever quitting. And my supplier keeps raising his prices, complaining about 'piracy' and the cost of advertising. Once I tried using an alternate supplier, a guy named Napster, but the RIAA hired an expensive gang of hit-men call 'the justice department' and had him killed.
When that rogue nation ICBM hits in a town near you, and the EMP wipes out all your ethernet purchased "eeeemusic" from your "peeceees", I'll be warm in cozy in my bomb shelter with a can of spam and my vinyl records -thank you very much.
...if you live in any of the half dozen countries that will be wiped out because they may have had something to do with it, or they have some oil Bush needs to secure...
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
It's always amazed me how high tech gadgets are marketed as being "not computers" when that's exactly what they are! (...) Seriously, without computing technology how do people think these things work? Little men with pointy shoes and long beards reaching to their knees inside the case?
No, but computing is quite different from the general understanding of computer. My car is a computing device. My washing machine is a computing device. My VCR is a computing device. My cell phone is a computing device. The list goes on forever.
But I don't call any of them a computer, even though some of them are definately high-tech. Why? Because they're specialized computing devices, and usually do a better job (cheaper, user-friendlier, designed for a specific performance) than a jack of all trades, master of none. And that's what they're after when they market them as "not computers".
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Or, better yet, give up the RIAA habit. Independent artists give you more for less, make it easy to listen, and leaves the RIAA sucking wind.
g /php/test homeplaylist.php and scroll down to the link.
We're having a Farewell to the RIAA party at the Burning Man Festival in 2005. Why don't you sign the pledge?
http://www.ibiblio.org/studioforrecordin
Why would anyone starve in a world that produces such and excess of food? Why would anyone kill anyone else. Why can't we all just get along? 'Cause we're all living on planet Stoopid and it's infested with Hoomins. Once they're eliminated, Gaea can recover and blossom and everything will be good and shiny and happy. Except for the all the things that get eaten by all the other things. They'll have moments of terror and pain. But it'll all be good as they're natural and not 'Hoomin Made'.
I drank what? -- Socrates