HMV to offer digital downloads.

[Willow]

BBC News

Via Peter Gabriel's OD2, the British music store chain plan to offer relatively affordable downloads of a vast back catalogue.

Having read a bit on OD2's website, I'm a bit puzzled why their software will be limiting people to burning 5 tracks to CD per month...but I'm sure that's not going to be a major issue.

Affordable digital music ? Being offered for real ? Not by a record label ?

[TankGirl]

Hi Miss Willow!

100.000 songs is a very good selection but burn limitations (which must imply some stupid proprietary format) may still make it a failure. When somebody offers unlimited access to 100.000 hi-bitrate MP3s for 5 £ a month we're talking business.

- tg

[zombywoof]

Originally posted by TankGirl
Hi Miss Willow!

for 5 £ a month we're talking business.

- tg

as you know, not unless carriers can shutout users completely to free access of everything and anything via p2p, ftp, hook and crook or whatever.

[Willow]

Originally posted by oscar


as you know, not unless carriers can shutout users completely to free access of everything and anything via p2p, ftp, hook and crook or whatever.

That invalidates one of the oldest arguments.

"If there was plenty of music available, and I could afford it, I'd pay".

So what you are in effect saying is this; whilst it is possible to get something for free, you'll continue to do so, even if paying for it doesn't cost much ?

That doesn't sound like much of an incentive for the RIAA to back down, does it ?

[pod]

Originally posted by TankGirl
100.000 songs is a very good selection but burn limitations (which must imply some stupid proprietary format)

That would be WMA.

[alphabeater]

i like hmv (it's one of the few places i know of that still sells vinyl copies of current releases).

you can find working examples of od2 shops at

www.towerrecords.co.uk
www.playlouder.com

ministry of sound offers a version of the subscription service that hmv will use here.

Get 500 credits for only £4.99. This gives you either 500 streams, 50 downloads, or 5 burns a month.

notice 'or', not 'and'. burn once and you've used up enough credits for 100 streams, or 10 downloads.

od2's main site is here

it's ie and media player 7+ only and the format does appear to be wma. you can download 30-second clips of each track for free. wma isn't such a bad format and there are tools about to convert it to mp3 for burning purposes (including winamp2 plugins if the files play there and totalrecorder as a last resort).

if the diversity of the music offered increases and prices come down slightly (£5 per month would be good for unlimited downloads, £0.99 per track is excessive), then i might consider it. all that said, however, you get your music this way... but no community. schemes such as this could be an adequate replacement for gnutella and fasttrack, but not for opennap and other more community-oriented p2p services.

[zombywoof]

Originally posted by willow


That invalidates one of the oldest arguments.

"If there was plenty of music available, and I could afford it, I'd pay".

So what you are in effect saying is this; whilst it is possible to get something for free, you'll continue to do so, even if paying for it doesn't cost much ?

That doesn't sound like much of an incentive for the RIAA to back down, does it ?

That is the reality of p2p filesharing. The free acess of mp3 has long set the standard of how much people will pay for downloading mp3's online. My point is, one penny is more than people would pay for mp3's as long as files are available and the only cost is a connection to the internet.

As for thye RIAA, they seek total control of whats floating out there anyway. They are not in the compromising game as shown by their lawsuits over the past few years.

[alphabeater]

Originally posted by oscar
My point is, one penny is more than people would pay for mp3's as long as files are available and the only cost is a connection to the internet..

if guaranteed high quality paid-for music could be downloaded cheaply and easily with extras such as artwork, tags and so on, then you'd be surprised how many people would choose this over hunting on various p2p networks for mp3s of sometimes dubious quality.

not everyone is obsessed with getting something for nothing; time, convenience and quality are more important to many people.

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by alphabeater

if guaranteed high quality paid-for music could be downloaded cheaply and easily with extras such as artwork, tags and so on, then you'd be surprised how many people would choose this over hunting on various p2p networks for mp3s of sometimes dubious quality.

not everyone is obsessed with getting something for nothing; time, convenience and quality are more important to many people.

I agree. The savviest p2p users might well prefer to get it all for free but I see no reason why the comfort & convenience seeking masses wouldn't pay something for a quality service with no artificial burn limitations etc.

I also believe that people would be willing to buy much more CDs if the price was really competitive with the p2p way of getting things. 2-3 USD per CD with free sampling from websites would probably boost CD sales into a new renaissance, and even the less known artists would sell well with those prices.

- tg

[zombywoof]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Get 500 credits for only £4.99. This gives you either 500 streams, 50 downloads, or 5 burns a month.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With these limitations and a pricetag, its still hard to compare with unlimited access and unlimited burning.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
if guaranteed high quality paid-for music could be downloaded cheaply and easily with extras such as artwork, tags and so on, then you'd be surprised how many people would choose this over hunting on various p2p networks for mp3s of sometimes dubious quality
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm sure there is a market for it, but how big? As for the extras like artwork, they can be easily found on the internet at various sites.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The savviest p2p users might well prefer to get it all for free but I see no reason why the comfort & convenience seeking masses wouldn't pay something for a quality service with no artificial burn limitations etc.
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Maybe, but when you read into these services, thats what they offer...Burn limitations..Again thats a hard sell on what is currently out there on the net.



Again, this goes back to what I origionally said that unless the ISP's put the squash on filesharing thru p2p, I just don't see a viable market for pay services.

If the ISP's do put the clamp down and pay services dominate the web and they offer artwork, unlimited burns, reasonable download and cd costs and such, they might have something there with a pay service, although I would never buy into any pay service, weed out the casual or mainstream user and drive the hardcore downloader underground for their downloads..

[ssj4_android]

All these pay services are monthly. What people might really like is over the internet delivery of cds. Or even a cheap pay per track thing, it can cost a little more per track than it would on a complete cd, but you don't have to pay for songs you don't want.

[pod]

Originally posted by alphabeater
wma isn't such a bad format and there are tools about to convert it to mp3 for burning purposes (including winamp2 plugins if the files play there and totalrecorder as a last resort).

I believe Winamp wimped out and disables all output and DSP plugins when MS audio formats are playing. Maybe an older version would work?

Totalrecorder is clearly labeled as a virtual device, and a player can refuse to play through it if it wants.