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Sony BMG To Offer 'Unlimited' Online Music
Again, with a number of unsexy caveats...

News emerged last week that Apple was trying to get the labels to sign off on an "unlimited" all you can eat iTunes buffet type plan, but even at this early stage, it's clear the plan was going to emerge with some major restrictions. Namely, you might lose some purchased music should the subscription end, which means some form of annoying DRM. On the heels of that offering, Sony BMG says they're developing their own unlimited access music plan.

quote:
As for costs to subscribers, the newspaper quoted him as saying that the "simplest option would be a flat rate" fee per month of around 6 to 8 euros ($9 to $12) for unlimited access to Sony BMG's entire music catalog and that the downloads would be compatible with all players, including Apple's ubiquitous iPod.
However, this plan too suffers from some fatal flaws that could make the project doomed to failure. Sony/BMG's CEO suggests it's "even possible that clients could keep some songs indefinitely, that they would own them even after the subscription expired." That means there's "some songs" you won't own after paying a substantial amount of money. Even if users like the "rental" idea, Techdirt points to the other major problem:
quote:
the bigger problem is simply the fact that this would fragment the market. No one wants to shop at one store for Sony BMG musicians, another one for Warner Bros musicians, another for EMI musicians, another one for Universal Music musicians and yet another for indie musicians. And, at the price point Sony BMG is talking about ($9 to $12/month) if you want subscriptions to all the fragmented stores, you end up pay $75 to $100/month for DRM-encrusted subscription plans. That's not going to work.

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hopeflicker
Capitalism breeds greed
Premium Member
join:2003-04-03
Long Beach, CA

hopeflicker

Premium Member

unlimited...

unlimited.

Ok, yeah, sure

NJxxxJon
2 0 1 7 Mmm Here We go man!
Premium Member
join:2005-10-22

NJxxxJon

Premium Member

DRM-FREE -PLEASE

ah. yes. My local CD Stores keep disappearing too, why?
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: DRM-FREE -PLEASE

said by NJxxxJon:

ah. yes. My local CD Stores keep disappearing too, why?
CDs have DRM in them? Sorry they don't.
bcoleman71
join:2007-09-18
Dallas, TX

bcoleman71

Member

Re: DRM-FREE -PLEASE

said by 88615298:

said by NJxxxJon:

ah. yes. My local CD Stores keep disappearing too, why?
CDs have DRM in them? Sorry they don't.
I think you've been hiding under a rock these past few years lol. Haven't you heard of the DRM rootkit installed by some of the CD's produced by Sony? If not, I would suggest reading the following:
»blogs.technet.com/markru ··· far.aspx

DRM CD's are more common than you think. Next time you buy a CD, read the fine print
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: DRM-FREE -PLEASE

said by bcoleman71:

said by 88615298:

said by NJxxxJon:

ah. yes. My local CD Stores keep disappearing too, why?
CDs have DRM in them? Sorry they don't.
I think you've been hiding under a rock these past few years lol. Haven't you heard of the DRM rootkit installed by some of the CD's produced by Sony? If not, I would suggest reading the following:
»blogs.technet.com/markru ··· far.aspx

DRM CD's are more common than you think. Next time you buy a CD, read the fine print
Sorry you are wrong. Sony stop using rootkits. CDs are DRM free sorry. YOU are the one living under a rook. Bringing something up from 2-3 years ago.
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd to NJxxxJon

Premium Member

to NJxxxJon
a better line would be compairing this to if the local CD store went out of business suddenly all the CDs from that store would stop playing.

hayabusa3303
Over 200 mph
Premium Member
join:2005-06-29
Florence, SC

hayabusa3303

Premium Member

Yawn

Music today sucks. I will keep my old stuff.

i still wouldnt call it all you can eat tho. DRM?

Nice try but its not going to work.

jmn1207
Premium Member
join:2000-07-19
Sterling, VA

jmn1207

Premium Member

Re: Yawn

said by hayabusa3303:

Music today sucks. I will keep my old stuff.

i still wouldnt call it all you can eat tho. DRM?

Nice try but its not going to work.
Popular, mainstream music may not be to your liking, but you are truly missing out if you never listen to new stuff. There are new songs being created that fall into a category of music in every genre. If you can't find any new songs that you like, it's most likely because you don't have a viable method to obtain this music. This is where a music service, such as Rhapsody, is a valuable asset to many music aficionados. It's like a library pass to a plethora of music. And just like a library, you can't keep any of the songs, but you can listen to a wide variety of different choices.

I have discovered a ton of great artists and rediscovered some old ones. As long as the sound quality is acceptable and the DRM is not too restrictive, I'd like to see how this new service works out.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

1 recommendation

FFH5

Premium Member

2 Rhapsody plans are better if you are renting by the month

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rh ··· _options
Rhapsody Unlimited is a paid subscription at $12.99. This option permits unlimited selections of music from the Rhapsody catalogue and access to radio stations programmed by Rhapsody.

Rhapsody To Go is also a paid subscription at $14.99 per month. This option offers the same features as Rhapsody Unlimited plus the downloading of unlimited selections to computers without purchasing songs on a per-track basis. Users are not permitted to burn the tracks to CD, but they can be transferred to compatible PlaysForSure portable devices. These "subscription downloads" (also called tethered downloads) cannot be transferred to an Apple iPod due to rights disagreements. The recent announcement that EMI will let digital retailers sell DRM-free music downloads will enable Rhapsody and other companies to sell major-label songs that play on the iPod, provided that they make such arrangements with the individual record labels.
It has millions of tracks from various labels. But it has no iPod support.

gatorkram
Need for Speed
Premium Member
join:2002-07-22
Winterville, NC

gatorkram

Premium Member

Re: 2 Rhapsody plans are better if you are renting by the month

said by FFH5:

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rh ··· _options
-snip-
It has millions of tracks from various labels. But it has no iPod support.
I use this service, and am very happy with it. It's not DRM free, but you can buy MP3s now if you want them.

I was a member of Urge, but they merged with Rhapsody.

The only real issue I have, is everything isn't "Free" to
stream with the membership. Sometimes you run into things that you just HAVE to buy to get.

Just like I use netflix to rent movies, and then return them, I have no problem renting music, and I don't even have to return it...

Netflix should get more movies online for viewing..

This is the future, don't fight it. Why pay per track, when you can "rent" as much as you want?
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to FFH5

Member

to FFH5
said by FFH5:

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rh ··· _options
Rhapsody Unlimited is a paid subscription at $12.99. This option permits unlimited selections of music from the Rhapsody catalogue and access to radio stations programmed by Rhapsody.

Rhapsody To Go is also a paid subscription at $14.99 per month. This option offers the same features as Rhapsody Unlimited plus the downloading of unlimited selections to computers without purchasing songs on a per-track basis. Users are not permitted to burn the tracks to CD, but they can be transferred to compatible PlaysForSure portable devices. These "subscription downloads" (also called tethered downloads) cannot be transferred to an Apple iPod due to rights disagreements. The recent announcement that EMI will let digital retailers sell DRM-free music downloads will enable Rhapsody and other companies to sell major-label songs that play on the iPod, provided that they make such arrangements with the individual record labels.
It has millions of tracks from various labels. But it has no iPod support.
yahoo music for $8.99 was better. unfortunately they are abandoning it an expect me to go to rhapsody for $4 more per month? Sorry what does rhapsody do for that extra $48 a year?

jmn1207
Premium Member
join:2000-07-19
Sterling, VA

jmn1207

Premium Member

Re: 2 Rhapsody plans are better if you are renting by the month

said by 88615298:

said by FFH5:

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rh ··· _options
Rhapsody Unlimited is a paid subscription at $12.99. This option permits unlimited selections of music from the Rhapsody catalogue and access to radio stations programmed by Rhapsody.

Rhapsody To Go is also a paid subscription at $14.99 per month. This option offers the same features as Rhapsody Unlimited plus the downloading of unlimited selections to computers without purchasing songs on a per-track basis. Users are not permitted to burn the tracks to CD, but they can be transferred to compatible PlaysForSure portable devices. These "subscription downloads" (also called tethered downloads) cannot be transferred to an Apple iPod due to rights disagreements. The recent announcement that EMI will let digital retailers sell DRM-free music downloads will enable Rhapsody and other companies to sell major-label songs that play on the iPod, provided that they make such arrangements with the individual record labels.
It has millions of tracks from various labels. But it has no iPod support.
yahoo music for $8.99 was better. unfortunately they are abandoning it an expect me to go to rhapsody for $4 more per month? Sorry what does rhapsody do for that extra $48 a year?
I've tried them both and the sound quality from Rhapsody was significantly better. It was much better than Napster's service too. When I signed up for these services, I was looking for the best listening experience. Rhapsody had the best sound. It was not even close.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: 2 Rhapsody plans are better if you are renting by the month

said by jmn1207:

I've tried them both and the sound quality from Rhapsody was significantly better. It was much better than Napster's service too. When I signed up for these services, I was looking for the best listening experience. Rhapsody had the best sound. It was not even close.
I'm not really an audiophile. Yahoo music sounded just fine. Songs usally streamed a 192 kbps. I was thinking about paying for a year over at Yahoo because I was having atime justifying the $9 a month since they removed some sogns I liked. It seems all the music services got rid of those songs so there's no advantage there.

I've never been a music buyer that's why I liked the subscription model but at $13 month I think I may be better off just buying DRM free Mp3s from Amazon. If every month I got to keep say 5 songs DRM free then maybe $13 a month would be worth it. I doubt Rhapsody is going to do that anytime soon.
old_wiz_60
join:2005-06-03
Bedford, MA

old_wiz_60

Member

From Sony?

Anything from Sony is likely to be stuffed full of DRM or rootkits. I'll stick to iTunes.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

1 recommendation

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: From Sony?

said by old_wiz_60:

Anything from Sony is likely to be stuffed full of DRM or rootkits. I'll stick to iTunes.
because itunes has no sogns with DRM on them and they play on most music players. /sarcasm

cdru
Go Colts
MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN

cdru

MVM

Re: From Sony?

said by 88615298:

said by old_wiz_60:

Anything from Sony is likely to be stuffed full of DRM or rootkits. I'll stick to iTunes.
because itunes has no sogns with DRM on them and they play on most music players. /sarcasm
While both have some form of DRM, iTunes is fairly unobtrusive and doesn't install it's own rootkit on your machine. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better then what Sony once attempted.

Hawkmtnman
join:2003-08-30
Kempton, PA

Hawkmtnman

Member

Hmmm

Nope.....to lame for me thanks.

packetscan
Premium Member
join:2004-10-19
Bridgeport, CT

packetscan

Premium Member

What the?

What's this sticky stuff on my music..
GhostBuster Goobe?
Nope, it's just Drm.
81399672 (banned)
join:2006-05-17
Los Angeles, CA

1 recommendation

81399672 (banned)

Member

If you can hear it, you can copy it.

Maybe apple and sony forgot, but if i hear music i can make exact copy of it. As such, any restriction they put on it are meaningless.
amigo_boy
join:2005-07-22

1 edit

amigo_boy

Member

Re: If you can hear it, you can copy it.

said by 81399672:

Maybe apple and sony forgot, but if i hear music i can make exact copy of it. As such, any restriction they put on it are meaningless.
I was thinking the same thing. I've used Audacity (»audacity.sourceforge.net/) and recorded from the line monitor. I could never hear a difference. Maybe an audiophile would.

I forget the exact configuration selections to record from the sound card's signal. It always takes me about an hour to figure it out because I use it so infrequently. If someone wants to try and and wants me to figure it out again I can.

It's a handy way to get something from a RealPlayer stream. For example, if you want a wav file for a sound effect or ring tone. I've copied music too. It sounded good to me.

Mark

Smith6612
MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY

Smith6612

MVM

Re: If you can hear it, you can copy it.

I use Audacity here a lot and I've found it to be very great, especially with MP3 format.

dadkins
Can you do Blu?
MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA

1 recommendation

dadkins to 81399672

MVM

to 81399672
»www.applian.com/replay-music/

Replay Music... been using it for quite some time now!
amigo_boy
join:2005-07-22

amigo_boy

Member

Re: If you can hear it, you can copy it.

said by dadkins:

»www.applian.com/replay-music/

Replay Music... been using it for quite some time now!
Thanks. That looks interesting. I wonder why the music companies haven't gone after tools like this (and Audacity) as violating the DMCA. I can see how they couldn't make a case against something recording from line-in. Running a cable from line-out to line-in introduces noticeable quality loss. But, it seemed to me like Audacity was getting the signal going to the sound card before it's converted to analog(?). If that's true it seems strange they haven't made an argument that it's violating something.

Mark

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium Member
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ

dvd536 to dadkins

Premium Member

to dadkins
said by dadkins:

»www.applian.com/replay-music/

Replay Music... been using it for quite some time now!
Thumbs up to that!

cdru
Go Colts
MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN

cdru to dadkins

MVM

to dadkins
I've been using Pandora Rip for some time in conjunction with Pandora Radio. It's not perfect and the software lacks some features I wish it had, but it's pretty decent. Pandora's downside is that you can't select a particular song or artist specifically, but you can create your own "station", seeding it's playlist with a particular artist or song. Plus it's all free.

NJxxxJon
2 0 1 7 Mmm Here We go man!
Premium Member
join:2005-10-22

NJxxxJon to 81399672

Premium Member

to 81399672
said by 81399672:

Maybe apple and sony forgot, but if i hear music i can make exact copy of it. As such, any restriction they put on it are meaningless.
Some headphone and RCA jacks yes.

Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium Member
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1

2 edits

Anonymous_

Premium Member

Re: If you can hear it, you can copy it.

loop back from

Spdif out

to

spdif in

my NVIDIA sound card has it

100% Digital Audio
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd to 81399672

Premium Member

to 81399672
im guessing that program is grabbing the sound stream from the audio driver as it is being sent to the sound card, as such it isnt violating the DMCA because the software isnt breaking any DRM encryption but is instead intercepting the data stream to the audio device.
TheMG
Premium Member
join:2007-09-04
Canada

TheMG

Premium Member

Another FAIL

They're never going to learn what the customer really want, are they? Idiots they are.

texans20
Premium Member
join:2002-09-28
Texas!

texans20

Premium Member

Zune

Zune has offered this for a while now, I can rent music and load my Zune up with mostly whatever I want. I dropped membership several months ago, but it was real easy to use. I prefer Zune's marketplace to iTunes anyway, and I also prefer Zune to iPod.

Now, I rent my music from Usenet.

pog4
Premium Member
join:2004-06-03
Kihei, HI

pog4

Premium Member

bluebeat.com

I'm sure there's something "wrong" with bluebeat.com... some association or agenda that pits them against the majority opinion here...

However, I actually like the product they offer... it's free, it's 320kbps, it works on my system without trouble, and the library is pretty big (no real judge on that, though).

My needs are not exactly very complicated... my commute to work is roughly 15 minutes so I don't really need to load up my MP3 player. I also like the radio format... pseudo-random order tracks in a genre I like (or from a playlist I created). The only thing missing is commercials. LOL!
Maze
join:2006-02-02
USA, NYC

1 edit

Maze

Member

Don't care about it i'll pass. Next

I don't personally care about "unlimited." I listen legally with other means. To Tunes not even produced from these guys. I love my style of music; that all so this will not change me not touching bacteria.

Next something more important then RIAA developments at 11:

It has been acknowledged that the Ice is melting in Antarctica. Recently the most biggest piece broken off. It has been said within fifteen years. A good chunk will break off and who knows what happens after. You can do a search on google for it.

GlobalMind
Domino Dude, POWER Systems Guy
Premium Member
join:2001-10-29
Indianapolis, IN

GlobalMind

Premium Member

Again...

They just don't get it. Pretty sad.

I guess they're trying to make digital so unattractive that you go back to buying CDs. At least then I own that physical disk.

Not interested in music rentals in the form they're suggesting, and likely any form.

khhklh
@cox.net

khhklh

Anon

u can easily defeat drm

theres software available that enables u to defeat the drm garbage