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OD2 Launches Penny-Per-Song Streaming Jukebox
securitas writes "BBC Technology's Darren Waters reports that UK digital music service OD2 launched its 350,000-song SonicSelector streaming 'digital jukebox' for a penny per song a day ahead of the iTunes Europe debut. The service (co-founded by Peter Gabriel) is available only in 'UK, France, Germany and Italy and will only work with users of Windows Media Player' 9. NewsFactor and The Register have descriptions of the pay-per-use / a la carte service. More at the Financial Times and Reuters via ZDNet UK. You can also read the previous OD2 Slashdot discussion."
To see Brian Eno on the side of the borg. What is the world coming to?
Just think on this - Peter Gabriel is now a voice of sanity in the music biz.
And you listen to the stuff these people put out. They could be sneaking _anything_ into your subconscious in their music...
'Don't worry' said the trees when they saw the axe coming, 'The handle is one of us.'
sod using WMP9. No way I could live with that. I'm not even asking for non-DRM'd files (although that would be ideal), but something a bit more cross platform is a pre-req for me. I should be able to play it on what software on whichever OS I choose.
A penny per song is a nice deal, and the 350.000-track database should contain something for most people's taste - but why only UK, France, Germany and Italy? What about us in the rest of Europe?
The article states that OD2 is "Europe's leading music download firm", and I've never heard of the company - which might explain why the service will not be available in my country...
SIG: TAKE OFF EVERY 'CAPTAIN'!!
With the massive proliferation of online music distribution services popping up all over the internet could this finally make the RIAA take notice that the old channels of distribution are finally dead and they need to reinvent themselves to stay alive? It will only be a matter of time before non-RIAA artists starting getting exposure through these new channels and the RIAA loses their shakey grip on the industry. Maybe they will never actually admit to being dinosaurs but that won't stop them from becoming extinct.
Please do not let scientific accuracy interfere with the intended humourous/interesting/insightful value of this comment
...right up to the point where he says 'will only work with users of Windows Media Player', and there my interest tails right off.
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
Who want a subscription service anyway?? Not me. I've just purchased a song from the UK iTunes store and it's now mine, all mine! Don't even think about whining about DRM. Oh Puhleeese.
iTunes surprised a lot of people when they hinted one week ago that they would launch iTunes in Europe today. Well, it's not exactly Europe (just UK, Germany, France), but everyone is running scared right now trying to prevent Apple from doing in Europe what they have done in the US.
Competition is good for everyone, especially for the consumers. Let the music war begin.
Little Bricklets
Err.. he doesn't work for BBC Technology, he works for BBC News Online. BBC Technology is a very different entity.
Infrastructure
OD2 offers a complete end to end solution for the digital sale, promotion and distribution of Music.
The OD2 infrastructure is designed to serve all channels, devices, platforms and formats. This means that the consumer will be able to purchase digital product to their PC, Mobile phone, TV or portable devices - like MP3 players. OD2 provides all the tools required for labels to sell and promote their music digitally and, as the market evolves, OD2 will ensure that the label's music is sold in every viable media.
Performance
* Systems capable of delivering over 1,000,000 streams and downloads per day.
* New European clusters will extend this to over 2,000,000 in Q1 2000.
Reliability
* Full Application and System Monitoring 24x7x365.
* Automated test downloads every 120 seconds.
* Hardware and software redundancy throughout OD2 systems architecture.
* Rigorous development, test and deployment processes. (OD2 is an accredited Microsoft Solutions Provider).
Security
* Digital Rights Management (DRM) based on Microsoft Version 7 Rights Manager.
* Enables a range of distribution and playback controls to be defined.
* Media protected internally and externally using latest security and encryption techniques.
Multi-platform
* Architecture enables new DRM's to be inserted for support of new platforms e.g. Cable TV, ADSL, 3rd Generation Mobile.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
gak
Seriously, does anyone have experience with trying to use MPlayer on the site with the windows codecs installed?
Ask 8 slackers a question, get 10 awnsers (a citation, but I can't remember from who)
It's pretty tough to argue with a legal listen for 1-2 cents (exchange rate varies). I bet that 50-100 times is about as many as I could listen to a song before I'm bored of it anyways, and for 99 cents I can get either that, or I can own the song. Plus, unscrupulous listeners could always record the stream!
stuff |
...and will only work with users of Windows Media Player' 9.
:)
Any idea whether this'll work with the MPlayer Win32 codecs?
Karma: Segmentation fault (tried to dereference a null post)
This new service package sounds interesting, but honestly, all it seems like to me is an extended preview that you pay for.
Granted its only 1P, but their ultimate goal is to get people to buy the whole song...and this sounds like kind of a scummy way to do it.
Unfortunately, this may be the only way they are ABLE to do it because I'm sure they have to pay the labels for the streaming rights to the song, so they couldn't just offer up a whole preview for free.
I'm curious though, can anybody spot any difference between the sites that use OD2's main product other than the brand name/images/colorscheme slapped onto the webpages?
As far as I know they all use the same catalogue, same terms, and same price, so I can't see how they are differentiated at all other than by Brand.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Europe launch for Apple's iTunes
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
I don't know. I mean, a penny-a-song is pretty cheap. But, something about me wants to pay once and be able to play a song as much as I want.
If I kinda of only liked the song and wanted to hear it only once in a while. I'd probably wait for them to play it on the radio. If I really liked a song, I'd pay a buck so I could listen to it when ever I wanted and be done with it.
The only time I see this as useful is if you are playing a song that you don't like that much, but somebody else would. For example, hosting a party or you have a date at your house and you figure Wierd Al isn't going to set the mood you want.
I just don't see those situations of use setting up a sustainable business model for the costs they are going to endure. Of course, if it becomes _the_ method for DJ'ing. You might get the volume you need, but I still doubt it.
Of course, this is just my opinion and I could be wrong (and frequently am).
Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true! -Homer Simpson
iTunes launches in the UK.
Great! Where can I sign-up?!
But the only portable device it supports is the iPod.
Oh well, I guess I'll stick to burning CDs.
Seems that the only way I can play music from iTunes on my MuVo is to burn a CD and then rip the CD, which is a bit more hassle than I'm willing to go to. So I'll pay a few pounds more, get the CD with the nice packaging, track listing, lyrics, etc, the eeeevil record companies will have more of my money and Apple will have none.
Apple wants to limit my use of their service so I'll limit it myself -- to zero.
Instead it provides the technology to retailers such as HMV, Virgin, MTV, MSN and Tiscali.
I still haven't figured out how Peter Gabriel ended up as the EU force of Evil.
[nothing]
You could always just capture the penny streams with AudioHiJack (I am sure there is a PC equivalent as well).
If you won't pay for an OS, why would you pay for music?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
This looks like an excellent way of "browsing" for music which is not played on the radio. I mean, it's not really competing with the $.99 "own the song"-price of iTunes, but rather it seems like a neat way to preview a lot of songs once (at a penny each) then buy the ones you like on cd or from iTunes.
On EuroItunes
found here
Ultimately, "the various formats need to be compatible," Averdieck says. "This will take a while to get sorted out, but it will happen. Meanwhile, Windows Media Player has a head start over all the other formats in Europe. And in the UK, there are 8.9 million PCs with Windows Media Player 9."
If only they'd heard of the MP3 format...
---
I support spreading santorum
OD2 Launches Penny-Per-Song Streaming Jukebox in Countries that don't use Pennies.
--I'm not talking about dance lessons. I'm talking about putting a brick through the other guy's windshield.-
I agree that the cost of music needs to approach this cost, and as soon as that happens, I'll likely ditch the cds permanently. It's too bad that the music industry has this perspective that we need to own the music. Like every other commodity, costs decline as distribution increases. That said, I'm not holding my breath for wide distribution of songs via this method. iTunes really has a great model, although I wish that albums could be downloaded multiple times. I want to own the license not the data.
Something for the ogg and drm zealots to bitch about today.
A penny a song isn't bad, but it could get annoying. I leave my computer with music playing. When I come back, knowing I wasted 10 cents would get annoying. If anything, I think that little annoyance would hinder people from playing music freely. It's still cheaper than $20 for the shrink wrapped cd or 99 cents for the song from apple. This service is probably better for teenagers who like to listen to the pop hits rather than actually invest and support and artist they like.
Good idea, but its only accessable with Microsoft Internet Explorer. WTF? I use Firefox and am not going to switch back ;-)
Of course, ripping songs from this service could eventually become rampant.
_____
Thank you.
It's not ahead of the iTunes Europe debut... I live in the UK, I have a UK credit card, and I have downloaded music in my iTunes folder - the iTunes UK, France and Germany stores are open.
... big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big...
I've found that my posts don't format quite right w/o a sig.
They really need to offer something better then the legally grey apps before I'll consider them.
Maybe a massive site with full archival downloads. I'd pay for that, even per download, simply for the convenience of knowing where to get it, and the gaurentee behind the quality and speed of download.
Otherwise, they are just being woefully hopefull, or dismissive of online distribution. "see, see, we charged 5 cents a download for a crappy file that most people cant play where they want. thats PROOF that online sales dont work."
Give me a break.
I live in the US and tried to sign up. It didnt boot me till I typed in my credit card. I guess its tied to the country. Anyone have any ideas on how to sign up from the US? How would you go about getting a UK issued credit card?
Thanks for the help...
1. When he and Gabriel touted this service initially - they made it sound like an alternative to any other on-line service. Most certainly not one that would be WMP only!!
2. His music and Gabriel's only availability will be via this service (and subsequently WMP only). Forget about iTunes.
3. He was always about "alternative" to pop music... atleast he was during the 70's. Now... he's just another pop superstar awash in cash.
... big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big...
I dunno, WMP makes me want to take a sledgehammer to my computer sometimes.
"Why Subscribe?" Good question...
Why not use a pocket PC? If you could get a fast enough connection, it would be like having an iPod with a pseudo-infinite song library, only the songs cost a few cents. That would be pretty awesome.
stuff |
Let's see... the average song is 3 minutes, one penny per 3 minutes, let's unrealistically assume I work 8 hours a day. That's $1.60 per day to have this playing all day. That's about $400 per working year.
I think I could buy a lot of music on iTunes for $400 and listen to it for more than a year.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
I was too quick to rant there as usual. You were postulating that might be their line of thinking. It wasn't your personal opinion. I quite agree with you that that's what they might be thinking. PHBs and rationality or clues rarely mix.
Stick Men
How and why would they limit this to some countries only?
Physical location is just about meaningless within the internet.
This is whats gving governments like China headaches because they can't control the propaganda anymore. Why should the record comapnies think they can control it?
Yet more energy being poured into "it'll only play on this system for that amount of time if your blood group matches X and your eyes are blue" schemes. All we want is a way to buy and download music we like at realistic prices (not the CD gouge) which we can then play where we want, when we want. Worried about pirates? WELL ITS GOING TO HAPPEN WHATEVER YOU DO until you directly pump the stream into friggin DRM cochlea implants. Fact is not all of us wanna give away what we buy. So many of us CRAVE the convenience of an OPEN pay-then-download system but they JUST DONT GET IT ... instead they want the ka-ching every time you even think of THEIR chord progressions.
Damn that, heres a business model for you:
1. Try keep 20th century business model in
a new age of media connectivity
2. Piss off users with half arsed schemes that
irritate and frustrate users who just want
freedom with their music
3. Users turn to new forms of entertainment
including music generation/production
systems that put more power into a laptop
than you found in an average studio 10 years
back
4. Regrowth of interest in local/open talent
rather than the slops the "industry"
chucks at us
5. PROFIT - no maybe not, but maybe fame
at least for developers of music software/
instruments/tuition enabling individuals
to capture and share their creativity.
We're nowhere as close to step 5 as we could be. EG: music software can still be a PITA to setup and use - but over the years we've had small revolutions like Band In A Box, ACID, Hammerhead which have made making music, noise or just stopming out a basic beat more ACCESSIBLE. More development is needed in this area to help bring the music we like OUT of us (or our friends) rather than having it dished up.
Want another example? How many of you use a scribe to get your blog articles written? What about a typing pool? Sure we dont all write masterpieces but we can all have our voice (as soft as it can be amongst all the noise) but thats where systems like google come in.
Now lets just do the same thing for music.
I bet they don't have the Funky Gibbon by the Goodies.
Stick Men
That's the number of albums I can listen to on Listen.com...
They are selling downloads for a penny each and (presumably) making money.
Just goes to prove that there's absolutely no reason they couldn't just sell MP3 downloads for 5 to 10 cents each and make money just fine. Hell, they would save a lot of their bandwidth and server expenses by not needing to stream the same data repeatedly.
Any download service that offered a $19.95 subscription for 250 MP3 downloads would absolutely sweep the market. It's not even work the hassle of mucking around with P2P at that point.
I'm really getting sick of the recording industry's DRM crap and inflated pricing mentality. I hope the whole recording industry just fucking IMPLODES.
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
While I do not pay for much content online, especially not music, this is what, to me, makes sense. I would not feel ripped off after the purchase, even if it's DRMed to death. It's affordable enough that I can just pay for a 20 song playlist whenever I want to listen to it. Of course, I would like to be able to make a backup of what I pay for, but my point is that this is thinking in the right direction. It's not the 80s/90s anymore, and to think I'm gonna pay $1/song is absurd.
P.S. This is not to say there is something wrong with paying $1 for a song. If that's how you choose to spend your money, go right ahead. By all means, go buy a $13-20 CD that costs $1 to make. "It's your money - you paid for it."
Must-not-watch TV!
One penny? come on that's too cheap and the fact that it only uses windows media player? who started this the people from Real? (laff)
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
the quote is *wrong*. WM9 has to *catch up* to mp3 in compatability. Every single machine able to play WM9 can play MP3. Many millions of CD/DVD players (portable and static) play MP3 but NOT WM9. Millions of portable devices (creative rio, for example) will play MP3.
So their quote is incorrect.
I think I'll be taking this one to trading standards.
The definition of what Apple is doing is confusing on its face and the poster of this article made it worse.
The iTunes Europe debut is for the rest of Europe, while Germany, France, and the UK already have iTunes. Yes it doesn't make perfect sense, but calling the debut iTunes "rest of Europe" wasn't as catchy.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
OD2 has actually had this feature for a while (streaming a song for 1p) and I think it's hideous. Forget the WMP stuff, and forget that it demands Internet Explorer... the tracks only play at 32kbps! I thought it was some sort of big joke (or malfunction) until I searched the Net and found out that, indeed, 32kbps was the order of the day. 32kbps? I'm willing to bet my almost-deaf grandmother could tell how poor the quality is at 32kbps in WMP compared to even a 128kbps MP3. Steer clear!
This seems to fill a niche where people had been asking for a wide selection of limited use, low quality songs that can be legitmately downloaded for next to nothing, in order to hear new artists or screen songs before spending more money on a high quality version that they get to keep.
You don't need cd quality sound to determine whtether a song is worth your dollar, and most songs you can pass judgement after a play or two.
Of course, 350,000 songs is not exactly an extensive library, especially since one can assume a fair portion is top forty fare, but they are no doubt planning on expanding their selections.
Aren't we getting tired of that obligatory Simpsons joke by now?
Personally, I don't like restrictions. I chose a free OS primarily for the freedom. I think Audio Lunchbox is fine but slow - it has non-DRM:ed oggs, with some records that are quite hard to find in physical record storse (notably early April March stuff).
I guess it only goes to show that
Exactly how is it scummy to practically give away a free listen in hopes you might just PAY for something? It's like... "how scummy, they aren't just handing out CDs." Whatever.
When it's stream ripping that you want, many soundcards nowadays allow you to capture the digital playback stream before it is D/A converted, just save that stream instead of the network stream and you should be fine too.
WHQL signed audio drivers don't mix DRM protected audio into the captured digital playback stream. If you don't have any WHQL signed audio drivers, Windows Media Player will just beep at you. See also the Secure Audio Path.
You'll have to use line-out to line-in, which really doesn't add that much noise compared to the ogg or mp3 encoding that typically follows it.
Tahya al-Moqawama al-Iraqiya!
Soon a dozen American cities will burn as their World Trade centers did on 11 September! Soon the Americans will know what it is like to have their cities ablaze and their wives and children burn to death! 11 September will be almost a pleasant memory compared to what we will soon release on their cities!
Long live the Resistance in Iraq! Death to the Americans and their puppets and dogs in our lands!