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Oxfam Launches Music Download Service
rahaydenuk writes "The BBC reports that Oxfam is backing the Big Noise Music website, which launches on Wednesday and will offer 300,000 songs for download. 10p of the 75p or 99p charge to download the songs will go to Oxfam and the service will be available across Europe."
..a link to Oxfam, a development, advocacy and relief agency working to put an end to poverty world-wide?
Given that it's a repackaged OD2 service, WMA.
James F.
Windows only, IE only - judging by the other services they run.
Gamers Europe - Gaming News. Reviews.
The artists have given consent that their songs can be used and distrubuted in this medium. The artists that will allow themselves to be distributed this way are doing so because they want to help Oxfam, not so much as to make huge lump somes of cash. The artists should be congratulated for not being so utterly greedy and helping out such a charitable organization.
From looking at the site, it's impossible (as yet) to tell, since they're not actually launching until the 26th (this Wednesday) and it doesn't have much detail available yet.
However, from other sites using the same back-end system (OD2), it doesn't look too promising - when I try any of them, I get a message saying "The site you have tried to enter requires Internet Explorer 5 (or better) with Windows Media Player 7 (or better) on Windows XP, 2000, Me or 98."
We won't know for sure for a few days, but it doesn't look promising.
As one of the people who help maintain oxfam.org.uk - please be nice to the server - The server runs linux/apache/php combo (although the main pages are plain html).
Unfortunatly the main server is scheduled for an upgrade - to a loadbalanced combo, rather than the current single box. (which has not happened yet) as it is currently quite heavily loaded. - especially when UK wakes up..
Dont forget there are nice big Donate Now buttons on all the pages. (It's a very good cause) - with great people who use open source alot..
Taking PHP to the next level: phpmole, php codedoc, php-gtk pear installer, DataObjects for php, ldap schema viewer and
When iTunes Music Store came out selling tracks for 99 cents a pop, I prophesized that any European version would sell tracks for 99 pence per track instead of the equivalent of 99 US cents, or even 99 EU cents. All of the stores which are coming out so far have proven this true. Let's see what Apple does, but I can almost guarantee they'll go in at the same price point.
As a comparison, 79 pence is approx. $1.38, and 99 pence is approx. $1.74. With most UK digital music stores hovering around the 99 pence mark, that means Brits are being charged 74% more than Americans on average. Oh well, I guess nothing changes, and as typical we'll all keel over and accept it. If UK salaries were 74% higher than American ones you couldn't complain, but it seems to be the other way around, still.