Slashdot Mirror
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."
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.
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!
It was also pretty tough to argue w/99 cents when iTunes came out unless you were the RIAA "trying to protect your artists'".
How long do you seriously believe that the money-grubbing music cartels are going to let these low prices go before they jack it up to something far more attractive to their wallets?
The only price worth paying is free. Free monitarily, free codecs, and free distribution.