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Labels Agree On Free Music Downloads To Cell Phones
An anonymous reader writes "CNet's Crave reports on a potentially revolutionary digital music service set to launch worldwide later this year. It's offering free, unlimited over-the-air downloads to cell phones, with music from all four major record labels, with no subscription. And the selections that users download get automatically downloaded to their PC or Mac. Rather obviously, the tracks are DRMed, but unlike the similar Nokia service unveiled last year to much disappointment, this MusicStation Max service will have exclusive handsets from LG and no additional fees to customers. This is a little similar to an idea talked about last year, but with all four majors on-board it seems to have greater potential."
Apparently nobody with power has been listening at the **AA, not even a little bit. I couldn't even work up a yawn for this new service, never mind enough excitement to contemplate what missing features will be on the phone and what 'extra' goodies will be there to track my every move or some attempt at that.
ooops, there, I yawned.
Did I hear someone just call them fucking idiots?
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And then I saw that it had DRM. And was limited to certain LG phones. Wow. Underwhelming, sad to say. Not that it'll appear down here, like, ever. Moving on.
And hell, it's *NOT REALLY FREE*. You need a special contract. Oh yeah. Sure, each track is free, but you're still paying a premium for it. I don't mind that, but it's a bit misleading. Not that I'm surprised.
They haven't even said which player will be able to play the files. It looks like Windows Media Player is a contender.
All-in-all, not impressed.
It's DRMed service which you will pay for. Nothing FREE in any sense of the word.
Limited songs on limited phones with limited transfer on limited equipment....
Have it right now MP3, BitTorrent, Piratebay and my WiFi enabled smartphone...
DRM? No thanks, I'll just get it somewhere else...
Each to their own man.
You only want a phone to make phone calls to your Turok friends, good for you!
I want to send emails and surf the net dinasaur hunting, good for me!
Pre-teens who want to turn their phones into an artfully crafted public-transport-torture device, unfortunately good for them!
And people who want to use their phones as music players rather than carry round two devices... is it really that bad?
But it's free! Sure it costs you $$$$ but it's FREE. Free I tell ya! Free! It just costs ya $$$$$$$$ but it's free!
It's funny but that's not what I call free. What's wrong with people? How can you even consider this free? It's a service.
DRM? No thanks, I'll just get it somewhere else...
It's not free. It's built into the price of the handset/subscription.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Although I am completely against DRM when it comes to music I've purchased to own, I forsee that DRM is quickly becoming a method to apply cheaper and wider access to music, albeit with restrictions. DRM has been really beneficial to allow subscription music users to take their music on the go; with an ad-supported platform or a service or device lockdown (as suggested with the above scheme), other service providers and device manufacturers can provide you low cost or free access to music, but the files would be limited in playback when under a particular service contract or using a particular device. This is why DRM on the iTunes store is really more of a device-lockdown; customers purchase the music, but it must be used with Apple products. I guess in this case, obtaining access to music using this method would lock you down to LG phones.
I only wish the major labels would get some talent to make this service worthwhile.
I started reading the original article, and stopped at this line:
"Every time you download a song to your phone, the same song is downloaded to your computer for playback through your PC speakers."
Just how the heck do they know when my PC is on, much less download songs to it? I don't want them downloading songs onto my PC without my knowledge. This service seems insidious. So you're saying every time I want to download a song, your proprietary player needs to be on a computer that's on and hooked up to the internet? Gee, there's no potential for abuse there.
What if someone sends me a rogue music file? If the same file is downloaded to my computer, isn't that going to mess up my machine? Virus writers are going to have a field day with this. Shame on Omniphone for promoting this garbage, and what is LG thinking, buying into this deal?
This will not replace p2p. It will barely make a dent. How can you justify charging for premium unlimited data when the same thing can be done with any smart phone on a wifi network for free? Really, these companies need to go back to their boardrooms and either disband or think of a better business model.
I'm not worried about the DRM. Whatever DRM these files come with will be broken the day that the first music file is downloaded from this service. I just don't understand why they even bother, anymore.
Can't teach a dinosaur new tricks, I suppose.
"a method to apply cheaper and wider access to music, albeit with restrictions."
In a free market competition drives cheaper prices. Intellectual monopoly products have no competition apart from the yarrr mateys. Prevent copying (or any form of competition) and you get more expensive, not cheaper, music.
So, no, DRM is never beneficial.
You make good points, but I'll also disagree with you on one area. Having a camera can be a detriment, because there are work environments where one is allowed to have a cell phone, but not one with a camera. Thus the phone with a camera gets left in a locker, at home, in a car, or in some other place where it cannot be used in a pinch, and the camera without the unneeded camera is on your person and available. A small point, but still it is relevant to quite a few people.
While the obvious answer is "None!", somehow I still suspect that DRM would remain, and User B copying a file from User A, instead of downloading it for free from the overloaded servers would still be inviting an RIAA lawsuit!
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