On-demand European music streaming service Spotify continues to move forward and has added download purchasing to its growing proposition. Listeners can right-click track names and pick "Buy From 7Digital.com", letting them purchase files from the service. They also plan to enable users to be able to buy whole playlists that they have created on Spotify.
With Spotify gaining a loyal audience, the service adds that extra dimension. Some may ask why bother as you can listen for free but for those on the move who may not have connectivity or those who must have a library it closes that down. It also gives Spotify, an a la carte download model that could counter its reliance on its core ad-supported, per-per-day and monthly subscription models. Spotify want to allow users to listen and buy MP3s securely with one or two clicks
Showing posts with label free music downloads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free music downloads. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, April 07, 2008
Steering away from the Rocks
Today the Guardian report on ‘Home copying - burnt into teenage psyche’ and the reality that file copying is bigger than file sharing and together they are redefining the music business. Ironically last week’s Litopia podcast raised the word ‘piracy’ and whether the book industry faced the same problem. We visualize the wreckers who used to steer ships onto the Cornish rocks.
Are we not surprised to hear that research carried out by the University of Hertfordshire, suggests that, home copying remains more popular than file sharing for 18-24-year-olds and that two-thirds of people it surveyed copy five CDs a month from friends. Overall, 95% of the 1,158 people surveyed had engaged in some form of copying. It’s nothing new it’s just easier today. We fondly remember taping radio shows and albums or lending copies to friends. Music like any media is about relating, connecting and sharing. We all read in solitude but we all give or lend our friends books to read. Imagine being branded as a pirate and thief for lending someone a book?
So the question is do we once more attempt to batten down the hatches and drive more copying, open the free floodgates and is there an acceptable middle ground?
Today we live in a material world and our media and our collections reflect ourselves. We all build libraries of stuff that rarely gets aired, let alone taken down off the shelf. But must we own it and it must belong to us. Is this about ownership, unfettered access or rights? What would be the reaction if a track were only to be available online. It could be made available to play at any time on any machine and even from a number of providers but the music will remain online and never downloaded? Will this happen, can it happen, can it be broken? It doesn’t automatically presume that it’s paid for by a direct subscription model, or that it is exclusive to one service. The answer is not the issue, its whether we accept the premise of ‘ as much as we want at any time online’, or we remain wedded to having to own it in order to appreciate it?
We can’t say whether online is the answer but with emerging technologies such as the grid and connectivity anywhere and at anytime, maybe it makes sense. After all, what on earth do you want 200 books on a Kindle for? To us this is like dragging around a cart load of all our physical books just because we own them and can do it. What is the point of an iPod with thousands of tunes if we listen to the same ones? We have a cupboard with hundreds of vinyl albums and can’t remember when we last played one.
Technology always has to work within the social framework and it is impossible to find a solution to one without accepting the other.
Are we not surprised to hear that research carried out by the University of Hertfordshire, suggests that, home copying remains more popular than file sharing for 18-24-year-olds and that two-thirds of people it surveyed copy five CDs a month from friends. Overall, 95% of the 1,158 people surveyed had engaged in some form of copying. It’s nothing new it’s just easier today. We fondly remember taping radio shows and albums or lending copies to friends. Music like any media is about relating, connecting and sharing. We all read in solitude but we all give or lend our friends books to read. Imagine being branded as a pirate and thief for lending someone a book?
So the question is do we once more attempt to batten down the hatches and drive more copying, open the free floodgates and is there an acceptable middle ground?
Today we live in a material world and our media and our collections reflect ourselves. We all build libraries of stuff that rarely gets aired, let alone taken down off the shelf. But must we own it and it must belong to us. Is this about ownership, unfettered access or rights? What would be the reaction if a track were only to be available online. It could be made available to play at any time on any machine and even from a number of providers but the music will remain online and never downloaded? Will this happen, can it happen, can it be broken? It doesn’t automatically presume that it’s paid for by a direct subscription model, or that it is exclusive to one service. The answer is not the issue, its whether we accept the premise of ‘ as much as we want at any time online’, or we remain wedded to having to own it in order to appreciate it?
We can’t say whether online is the answer but with emerging technologies such as the grid and connectivity anywhere and at anytime, maybe it makes sense. After all, what on earth do you want 200 books on a Kindle for? To us this is like dragging around a cart load of all our physical books just because we own them and can do it. What is the point of an iPod with thousands of tunes if we listen to the same ones? We have a cupboard with hundreds of vinyl albums and can’t remember when we last played one.
Technology always has to work within the social framework and it is impossible to find a solution to one without accepting the other.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
My Space, My Music, My Book?
Could MySpace with its captive audience extend to capture the music download market?
The online social networking site owned by News Corp, is reported in sources including Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and CNET.com as being in talks with the major music companies to launch an ad – paid free music service.
This could effectively open up the free music to a huge market, obviously generate significant ad revenues and blur still further social sites and media. It would certainly capture the attention of the widest audience and turn MySpace into an even greater phenomenon. It would also act as a launch pad to catapult News Corp potentially into many new acquisitions.
We read last month that HarperCollins plans to team up with its sister company MySpace, to build and launch a new "create and share" space, http://www.myspace.com/harperteen where kids on the site can write prose and share it with friends on MySpace. Given the ownership of HarperCollins and their digital drive, will we next hear about My Space giving ebooks away on an advertising paid model?
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