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Oxfam Launches Music Download Service

Posted by timothy on from the good-cause-and-human-interest dept.

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."

14 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. can they compete with itunes by chaos421 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    once apple decides to open itunes out to the european market, will anyone be able to compete with that?

    1. Re:can they compete with itunes by LostCluster · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Yes. iTunes Music Store music is only portable if you have an iPod. Meanwhile, every other music player in existance seems to be adopting WMA.

    2. Re:can they compete with itunes by Cooke · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Yeah thats a great idea use a lossy compression once to get the WMA format then use ANOTHER lossy compression to get to mp3. You now have a file that sounds nothing like the original!

      They should have the option to download in raw format then those who want to use compression can and the compression of their choice.

  2. And uh... by prisen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    10p of the 75p or 99p charge to download the songs will go to Oxfam And what percentage of the remaining 65p/89p goes to the artist that made the song, again?

  3. Giving is good. by Nikkodemus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is more like it, I'd nearly feel good about using this service. Cool.

  4. I was going to say something like that by KhalidBoussouara · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So I'll post what I was going to say as a reply. My post details each option (buying or giving the money directly to charity) and what benefits the latter option brings to you.

    Imagine you have 7.50GBP.

    You could buy 10 songs from the service. Oxfam gets 0.75. The artists get hardly anything. You get a crappy WMA file infested with DRM.

    or

    You download 10 songs from the internet and donate half the money you were going to spend directly to oxfam. Oxfam receives 3.50GBP (500% increase). You recieve a high quality audio file which will work on a variety of systems and contains no DRM.

    Which would you choose? For legal reasons, I will not provide an answer. Of course most people will choose option 2 and keep the money for themselves but that's not the point. If you really want to help a charity there is always a better option than bowing down to a company.

    1. Re:I was going to say something like that by eyeye · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The other scenarios... some of the songs are 99p each.

      That means you can download 10 tracks for 9.90

      Many albums contain more than 10 tracks.

      So I would rather go to the shop, but the physical CD for 9.99 (a massive 9p extra) and probably get more tracks for my money.

      --
      Bush and Blair ate my sig!
  5. I feel like a mineral resource. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am a musician. Always have been.
    Make albums. Record other peoples. etc.

    I support Oxfam, but I am starting to feel like some kind of object. Everything I make will probably end up in some kind of big discount sale. A few more years and it will be commonplace to get media with a thousand records on it. Probably as a free gift along with your petrol.

    It makes records seem like the free coupons you get when you buy the right brand of detergant.

    It's kinda sad.

  6. really in europe ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting
    "the service will be available across Europe."

    And even can't tell us the price in euros ?
    Or they start in GB and plan to expand later ? But why starting with a 60M people market when they are more than 250M people in euroland ?
    good luck
  7. True, there's too much fragmentation already by tentimestwenty · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Look at the number of music download services that are referenced in the article. Every damn company has to have one it seems. If anything this will guarantee they all fail because nobody wants to have to go to a number of different sites, figure out how to use them and be disappointed none has all the songs they want. As long as iTunes has a similar sized catalogue to the US version all these little crappy sites will only be a help to iTunes consumer acceptance.

  8. Re:Europeans get a tax deal again by XavierItzmann · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How many pence out of the 99 is going to the Exchequer? Because in Florida, exactly *zero* sales taxes are paid on iTunes purchases.

    --
    The next pasture is always greener
  9. Re:I know where my money is going. by ezzewezza · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why not do both? If you're going to buy the music, buy it from an organization that will donate some of your money to Oxfam. If you want to support Oxfam, give them your money directly. The two are not mutually exclusive ways of donating money.

  10. what about the kernel http daemon? by MichaelCrawford · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Linux kernel 2.4 can serve static files straight from the kernel and pass dynamic requests to a userland server.

    I've never used it but it seems like a great idea. What do you think?

    --
    Request your free CD of my piano music.
  11. as they are a charity shop by advocate_one · · Score: 2, Interesting

    can I donate my unwanted "legal" music downloads to them to sell on at a cheap rate??? like I can do with my unwanted CDs, DVDs, books and the like...

    --
    Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.