Universal and Sony Plan "Free" Music Service

Damon Tog writes "Macworld reports that Universal Music Group has enlisted the help of Sony to join forces in a new music service. The price of the subscription is expected to be built-in to the cost of digital music players, leaving the music 'free' to the consumer. 'The plan is still in flux and faces several hurdles, BusinessWeek notes. Among them is finding a business model that allows the hardware makers to subsidize the cost of the music. In addition, the labels have tried to develop their own online music services before without success.'"

Comments

All the music fit to hear

[SuperKendall]

So, would said player let you load any of your own music on it? Or is this a device where you get to hear how great whatever artists a limited set of studios thinks are good enough for you?

It's like radio, but with more room to roam in your cage.

The problem is that selling cages to consumers has traditionally led to them escaping, or not entering in the first place in great numbers...

From a music industry exec

[PMBjornerud]

Ok, ok. So I'm not really a music industry exec. But I think like one:

People want music in several formats.
People want music that plays over all devices they own.
People want music in varying quality, and are willing to scale the pay of a song to the quality.
People are not willing to pay more than a song is worth. (This is the biggest issue for the labels) No, no, no. Nono. No!

We've figured it out now. People want free (as in beer) music! That's why we have rampant piracy and such lackluster sales. Right? Duh. Those mindless buggers care for nothing but free. But since these music-playing handheld machines still are selling like hotcakes, there must be some way we can get money from them instead!

Obviously we just have to make music "free", and people will buy... erm, rent... er, hang on... enjoy (yes!) our music again!

Trust us, our plans are brilliant this time!

Oh... and I shouldn't write this... It's supposed to be a secret, but here goes: Since this "free" service obviously needs to be limited to the specific devices that are paying us, there must be some DRM involved. That means that we can at any time change this into a pay-per-play scheme. See how clever we are!!!

We should have done this sooner! World domination! We've learned now! Those selfish consumers want nothing but free, so we'll give them "free", all right. Ha! this time, we cannot loose! Brilliant, I tell you!