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MTV Getting into Music Download Business
Pranjal writes "According to this article at Economic Times, MTV is getting into the music download business. MTV chief Tom Freston announced on Monday, the service would debut within the first half of next year. Looks like the online music download business is heating up."
seeing how this is MTV, this really should be:
"from the getting-crowded-in-her r e dept."
Mike
I really do feel bad for the RIAA members (not the RIAA itself). They are stuck having to eventually face the fact that they are 80% of the way to extinction. Can anyone realy imagine a future 50 years down the road where anyone is interested in buying a piece of plastic with music on it?
Yes, storing it in a way that does not rot too fast or get deleted for video game space is valuable, but I see the future retailers of music being the clubs that host musicians. They should strike a deal with the performers that they host to sell the music via a Web site and via a kiosk at the show.
Here's one business model for that:
Club makes USB-fobs that contain the customer's name, credit info (or a key that they look up the credit info in their database with) and email address. The customer goes to a show and likes it, so they walk over to the kiosk and plug in their fob to order the "album" on the way out. The kiosk notes the purchase in the database and sends email to the customer with a link to download the music from the Web site.
Quick, easy, and here's the best part: you don't care about file-swappers because you get the customer at the exact point where they decide they like the music. You don't care if the 5 billion people who never come to your club swap this music around. What you care about is that your club (and the artist who gets a cut) made some extra money from a customer. You win, they win and the band wins.
But, I still feel bad for the labels who are doomed because they can't make a "star" anymore out of some semi-talented performer who they can stick on MTV. Or more to the point, they can make the star, but there's soon going to be no point in terms of selling CDs.
All errors in this comment are mine. Corrections are considered a derivative work, and punishable under copyright law.
No, wait. Better never in this case.
I thought they only showed crappy shows like "Made" and "Road Rules". Since when has MTV been about music?
I always thought that MTV would get involved more with Launch.com - or in a buyout. Granted, Yahoo bought them out (Launch), but there was plenty of time beforehand.
Between the videos and the radio that they have, it seems like a good spot to them say "want to buy this song/album? click here"
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
Music download is all well and good, but I wish this new stack of legit music download services would offer me the video of these songs (if available).
Some bands, Beasti Boys, Super Furries and Moloko jump to mind, really put some effort into their videos. MTV would be well placed to offer this as a USP for a while, probably having better deals and leverage than anyone in that area.
Charge me more or throw it in as an incentive I dont mind - just give me the option!
Well I thought they might've been slacking since they are only starting up a magazine (print) and selling mp3 players (electronics) after already cornering the market on useless musical merchandise. Even an ex-Road Rules contestant and ex-FOX News reporter is lead on that new morning show, Cold Pizza, on ESPN2. They are seriously becoming an omni-brand intent on a flat-entertainment experience.
Not like most people would notice any difference...
What is music when you despise all sound?
Oh, great - so now instead of worrying about how my MP3s will sound I have to worry about how they look too??
Witness the fad of the 2000's - online music services.
You know which one will survive? The one the RIAA sets up for themselves.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I learned two things:
- MTV's music download service will "compete with iTunes and everyone else"
AND
- "MTV will also be competing with a relaunched Napster and recently launched BuyMusic.com"
Wait, make that three things: there's no way to get back the five minutes I spent reading that article.
It'll be interesting to see how long it is before music download services become completely commoditized. They're already dangerously close to that now. The 'goods' they sell are roughly equivalent between services, the breadth of selection, and the restrictiveness of the DRM being the two areas of differentiation I can see.
Don't know how much the RIAA will let these guys loosen up the DRM, and the catalogs look pretty equivalent and will become increasingly so IMO, so all that's left is price.
I'm guessing Amazon will jump in soon as well. They've got the traffic to drive sales, all other things being equal.
It'll be interesting to see where the cost per song/album comes out. iTunes is promoting an upcoming promotion (don't think about that too much) with Pepsi, where some of the prizes are iTunes downloads. I don't know the specifics, but that certainly looks like it holds promise -- advertising subsidized downloads.
No man is an island, but Gary is a city in Indiana.
GTRacer
- Commercial entertainment quality is teh suck.
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
Had to take that stab at em, mod as need be. :)
.com's business model has patented that already. (Again mod as needed)
Wondered when they would start to offer this service, and along with previous posters I am wondering when they will offer the music videos as well and really offer some content (Aside from Troll subject). Wait a minute...I think a faltering
-1 Overrated (Too many big words for me to comprehend)
1. Have mp3s to download not wma rubbish
2. Be cheap
3. Let people in the UK use it please!
4. Have a mix
5. Dont just market it at helpless teeny boppers
6. Please, pretty please
another .com bust in the making.
Threadkilling since 1992
Hold up, wait a minute, let me put some pimpin in it
How long before all the music is gone and replace with divx formatted recordings of psudo-reality show?
Considering MTV's track record with music videos, I shudder to think at what they could be offering:
1. Waves and Waves of boy bands and Britney/Christina clones.
2. Non-stop product endorsements embedded in MP3s and video downloads.
3. Downloadable versions of Real World and other "reality" shows.
4. "Special" IM clients that ensure a "safe" environment for children (no perverts, etc) while allowing only "approved" advertizing to float by the screen. Note: This software will automatically monitor you computer to make sure your "children" don't "accidentally" download copywrited material. Anything not digitally signed will be automatically deleted "for your own good."
My inlaw's computer is a cesspool of Ad/Spy ware caused by the various crap their 16 year old daughter's downloaded over the past two years. I routinely have to uninstall garbage that she installs just to get past annoying popups.
If you read slashdot more often you'd be able to subconscously correct minor typoes like that.
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, I always saye.
It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
Wait...did you just ask for MTV to NOT pander to helpless teeny boppers? Dude, that's their market!
Am I missing something? I haven't seen any indication they would offer MP3's. Let me know where you got the info. I've been looking for MP3's. I can't play WMA9 DRM stuff in my car MP3 player. My car also can't play any streaming format.
If they are offering a useful format, please reply to this post!
The truth shall set you free!
Here's why: the iPod.
The iPod has serious street cred (and market share) amongst MTV-watching teens. For MTV to make their service acceptable to the record companies, it will have to have ham-handed, crippling DRM. For MTV to make their service successful, they'll have to make it work with the iPod, arguably the most popular/cool MP3 player amongst their viewers (I mean, OMG, 50 Cent had one in his video!!!)
Without both sides of that above equation in place, the service will be a failure right out of the gate. And with the iTMS now available for Windows, it's not in Apple's interest to assist a third-party music service by making the iPod work with it. People will have a more seamless experience with their iPods if they just stick with the iTMS, and Apple will make a few more bucks out of it that way.
So, the MTV online music service is analogous to a racehorse that drops dead while being walked to the starting gate.
~Philly
I don't know why everyone thinks this is a victory against the RIAA. Really this is a victory for them as well. They are there to support the recording industry, so that they have the ability to charge for the property they so rightfully own. It really doesn't matter how.
RIAA has supported this idea from the start, but as so many of you selectively note the RIAA is not a company. They can not start there own venture, only attempt to stop illegal ones; which is why they should and will continue to shutdown illegal P2P activity.
Due to the lower price of distribution, imports, exports, tariffs etc. this method of providing music should stop the whiners, because now they have access to music at an affordable price, and should have no need for illegal P2P.
So everyone wins. Well everyone who isn't solely driven by greed at least, and will continue to use the substandard illegal P2P programs.
VENI, VIDI, VICI, DIXI
Truly sitting around the artist collective in our double breasted suits drinking cognac has been destroyed by these perpetrators.
But you do bring up an interesting point: folks here seem to equate freedom of musical choice with a better preception and appreciation of music. I remember reading an article on the illegal cd market in Mexico and although it seemed that Mexicans were buying more music the problem was that they were becoming even more fixed in their tastes.
It's one of those "if you never hear anything new how do you know you'll like it?" things. I think that is the greatest shame about MTV and all this P2P stuff. People can get that one big single from that one novelty (to them anyway) band and completely ignore the rest of their body of work or any tangentally important work.
All this new technology and it seems that everyone's view of the world is getting smaller.
What is music when you despise all sound?
My inlaw's computer is a cesspool of Ad/Spy ware caused by the various crap their 16 year old daughter's downloaded over the past two years. I routinely have to uninstall garbage that she installs just to get past annoying popups.
With all due respect to your family, as well as your personal preferences, this is exactly why I insist on keeping a Mac in my house for my family to use. Multiple accounts under OS X, practically virus-free, they can't install applications outside their own home folder, and I can control exactly what apps they can and can't launch.
Can't play the latest games? Save your allowance and buy a PS2, kids. I bought my first Nintendo with birthday cash; you can, too. Can't use the latest software? Probably just as well; 95% of the stuff that has no Mac equivalent isn't worth using, anyway.
Spyware, IMO, is the second-best argument (after VB viruses) for dumping Windows from the family computer entirely.
With all these services cropping up, I'm beginning to wonder about the limits of the interoperability (and longevity) of the formats used for the files I buy (rent?).
I can go out to any CD store, and I can bring my CD home and listen to it in any CD player from any company. This will remain true long after CD is supplanted by the Next Big Thing (TM). It's not difficult to find a record player, although they're not as omnipresent as they once were. It takes a little more work, but I can find someone to sell me an 8-track player or a reel-to-reel, too. Worst case, I can build one with the right components and little know-how (that I don't happen to have).
When I buy a song from Itunes, its in a proprietary format I can only read with apple's products. That's fine for now (they're great products), but what am I going to do 10 years down the line if Apple gets out of the music business. The selection is a little more flexible on the WMA-based music side, as Microsoft is licensing the format and its DRM to anyone and everyone, but ultimately, you can run into a lesser version of the same problem.
I don't want to have to install 10 different proprietary music players and buy 10 different portable devices just to shop from 10 different online stores. And I don't want my purchases to become useless just because a company goes out of business or drops its music player/sales line - or because I switch operating systems or even upgrade to a new OS revision that isn't supported.
For now, I'll stick with ripping my own CDs to unprotected MP3s (sorry OGG, I have a nomad). I'll reconsider once (if) everyone settles on a defacto standard for a format that's not too restrictive to but useful.
I'm not sure why the RIAA and Labels are being so anal with some companies and not with others.
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
This all strikes me as dot-com redux: Let's sell stuff, and figure out later how we're going to make money from it.
I can see why Apple is in the music download business, even given the terms that pretty much limit profitability to the labels. For them, music downloads are sort of a loss leader/tailer to extremely profitable iPod sales. Other music download companies, unless they own the music they're selling and thus can keep the royalties, are going to have a very hard time making any money on this.
Let's say they are able to squeeze maximum efficiency out of the business, and somehow are able to attain marginal profits of about 10 cents a song (US). If they manage to sell 100 million songs a year, that comes out to a measly $10 million profit. That's not nothing, but what's the investment required to get here, and what're the ongoing costs to maintain that level of sales?
The numbers I've seen bandied about in the press don't look so promising.
The problem is downloads are essentially a commodity product. Yes, they could compete on quality and levels of DRM, but that's up to the labels, not the download companies. For Apple, downloads help sales of their non-commodity product, the iPod. For AOL, downloads will drive sales of their service. For Microsoft, they will drive sales of WMA licenses.
That's why I predict that only Apple, AOL, and possibly Microsoft are going to be long term players in the market, and that's because they don't need music downloads to be profitable, but to drive sales of their other products. The others will stay niche players or eventually get swallowed up, perhaps Roxio-Napster by Samsung, and MusicMatch by Dell.
And even though MTV, unlike those two, doesn't actually need to make money on downloads, I don't see what they gain that they can't get by just partnering with one of the other services, like AOL is doing with Apple.
This is not going to go well, as its been noted MTV doesnt play videos anymore except for TRL and late night. What is more disturbing is what they have done with MTV2. During the day, it seems to be competing with BET for the rap and R&B market. To hear anything else, its always late at night and at weird times. Any show that plays anything slightly out of the American mainstream, like 120 minutes or AMP has to be shown at a time people like me are either asleep or watching a live concert somewhere. Now they want to sell me music online? Nope, sorry, your brand name stands for the same sort of Clear Channel homogenization that I can't stand. I'll stick with iTunes.
"My head hurts, My feet stink, and I dont love Jesus." -Jimmy Buffett
I think that "stealing" mp3's was ultimately a situation that needed to change. But, it loosened up the whole industry and got people listening to all kinds of music that they wouldn't have otherwise. Music became interesting again because it seemed to be back in the peoples hands and out of Casey Cassim and Dick Clarks hands. It got people interested in music again. It was culturally a great thing. Suddenly every DVD and CD player was wired for MP3's. This happened well before there was a "legal" way of getting MP3's. Besides making your own which just seemed stupid if you already have the CD. I think the future of music is going to suck. Slowly but surely all the new channels of distribution are going to be controlled by money hungry execs. Its already the case. Within a few years the RIAA will have an online music store too.
My karma is getting better everyday.
There are a zillion places to download music in MP3 (or whatever) form, iTunes being legal to boot.
That niche is being served.
MTV didn't get to where it got by playing music, they got to where they are by playing MUSIC VIDEOS. So put all the videos (particularly the old school stuff) up for purchase as downloads and use a decent codec that doesn't require a spyware laced install on the client.
Damn, I should patent that.
We already have MP3s. Sell us MPGs of the music videos.
This clue brought to you by the number 4 and the letter V.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
--
I sold my iPod on eBay to get a dellPod! The best choice I ever made.
Best Buy can have you arrested
Paying for a candy bar covers:
a) the recipe
b) ingredients
c) packaging
d) shipping and handling
e) display
f) cashier's salary
Paying for an mp3 covers:
a) the recipe
b) bandwidth (a cent at most)
Yes, ninety-nine cents for a copy of a work of art is a total ripoff that's not justified by anything. Also, the fact that the recent Canadian music service used $.99 CAD (about $.75 USD) for the same imaginary product should be a dead give away that the price has nothing to do with their actual costs.
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
Yeah, right. This will fail, big time. First of all, the M in MTV hasn't stood for music in over a decade. They have shows featuring complete idiots doing mindless crap (Jackass, any Real World or Road Rules), celebrity-obsessed losers, and hardly ever shows a full music video without having some crazed Teenie Bopper screaming about how much she loves the artist (TRL).
No, the M in MTV stands for Moron. Why? Because only complete morons tune in to it anymore. MTV hasn't been worth anything since the day they decided that Rap and R&B were more important that the genre that made it the cable giant it is: Rock. And when they do talk about Rock, they usually only mention these dime-a-dozen Pop Punk bands.
MTV Sucks. All should either look into the new Napster or just deal with iTunes. I wouldn't trust MTV's judgment of "good music" any further than I can throw Carson Daley...
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