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BBC To Launch Music Download Store

Posted by timothy on from the cat-detector-van dept.

Jackson writes "According to a post on Cnet today, the BBC is working on a paid-for download, and ad-supported streaming music store, making available its entire archive of music recorded at BBC studios for TV and radio. The venture has major label backing and is rumoured to be launching next year. More interesting still is that the service will be run by BBC Worldwide — the commercial arm of the BBC — meaning downloads are likely to be available to the entire world, not just the UK. Beatles radio sessions, anyone?"

7 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Only music? by sm62704 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have the HHGTG books, I taped the TV series from PBS, and bought the DVD of the movie, but I have never heard the original radio play. Will it be available at this new BBC store? If it is, I want a copy!

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  2. How about a way for for non UK people to watch by FictionPimp · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'd be happy to just watch their damn videos. Hell I'd even pay a small subscription fee to do so. Providing it worked properly on mac and linux.

    1. Re:How about a way for for non UK people to watch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      We should set up some sort of exchange. Then you could watch the Beeb and I could watch The Daily Show without being redirected to Channel 4's DRMed rubbish. At least they're honest about how they feel about DRM.

  3. Re:Publicly funded? by Vectronic · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well don't rule it out entirely, the deals arent all set yet... I dont see why they couldnt have the normal ad-funded stuff Mon-Sat, and then maybe the (entirely hassle/ads) free stuff on Sunday, or an entire station(s) devoted to the free stuff, I'm sure that whatever archives they have are already fairly well split into one pile or another, the "safe for anything" and the "check the rights" before playing piles, not very hard to go from there.

  4. Re:Publicly funded? by seriesrover · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You could also point out why should one pay full retail cost for BBC DVDs etc. At the end of the day, whether these things are covered or not under the TV license, the *real* cost of operating the BBC is what they're trying to cover. In my view the TV license covers basic tv viewing (and radio); everything else has to get paid for somehow. Actually I think the TV license is a pretty outdated model when you consider how things have changed over 20 years with VHS \ DVD \ internet.

  5. Re:Publicly funded? by Gordonjcp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Also, there are some rather distinctly American-oriented commercials (for instance: how many UK car commercials tout miles-per-gallon fuel efficiencies, and displays the sales prices in dollars?)

    The big difference here is that there are *no* adverts on the BBC TV or radio channels *at all*...

    Yup, no adverts. You know that TV Licence we pay? Well, you know how it's quite a lot less than you pay for cable or satellite in the US? We don't get adverts on our BBC channels. Doesn't it suck to *pay* to watch TV and still get bombarded with ads?

  6. Re:Publicly funded? by Gordonjcp · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually, we still have local broadcast channels that cost nothing - perfectly free. The Portland Metro (Oregon) area has about six or seven of them.

    Do they have adverts?