Warner Music in Lala(.com) land
p2pnet.net news:- They’re out there, desperately racking their brains trying to figure out how to get more money out of you without giving anything back. And Warner Music’s latest effort in this direction is to strike a deal with a company called Lala.com which it’ll allow people to stream, but not download, Warner music for free.
Of course, anything which can be seen or heard can easily be copied by one analog or digital means or another. But never mind. Warner hopes streaming will drive music sales.
Doesn’t that look vaguely familiar? Haven’t the proponents of p2p filesharing been saying for all these years that sharing equals disseminating, not thieving, and far from damaging sales, it actually helps to boost them? OK, the music ends up solidly on someone’s system, but that doesn’t seem to have made any difference to sales, Big 4 claims to the contrary notwithstanding.
Meanwhile Warner and its other three partners in crime, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, have been suing ‘thieves’ as fast as they could find them —- unless, of course, said thieves happened to be the offspring of famous corporate music executives. Edgar Bronfman jr’s kids, say.
Bronfman runs Warner and last December Reuters asked him if any of his seven children “stole music“.
“I’m fairly certain that they have, and I’m fairly certain that they’ve suffered the consequences,” Bronfman stated, going on, “I explained to them what I believe is right, that the principle is that stealing music is stealing music. Frankly, right is right and wrong is wrong, particularly when a parent is talking to a child. A bright line around moral responsibility is very important. I can assure you they no longer do that.”
What did he do to them? – asked Reuters. “I think I’ll keep that within the family.”
Oh. OK. But thanks to Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), it doesn’t stay at home for thousands of ordinary, non-corporate, children and their families. They go through hell for years and years until the Big 4 finally decide they’ve had their pound of flesh.
Meanwhile, “Lala.com, which is now a site where music fans can trade used CDs for a fee, is hoping to make money by selling music, both in CD format and as digital files that it will send to iPods without using Apple’s iTunes software,” said The New York Times, going on, “The site does not yet have similar deals with other labels, but the company’s founder and chief executive, Bill Nguyen, said it was in talks with several.
At first, “Lala.com will not work with any other portable device,” says the NYT, adding, “The digital files that Lala.com will sell are not copy-protected, but they will be difficult for users to replicate because they bypass iTunes and are stored only on the iPod.”
“Upload your iTunes and My Music folder to the Web,” says Lala. “Designed to be iPod friendly, easily fill up your iPod from the Web (and any PC) with your favorite music.
“Don’t spend hours on P2P sites and worry about viruses. Safely share music and playlists.”
We couldn’t see a privacy statement or anything else which specifies what happens to user information, etc, but you’ll wind up the piece of software on your system which’ll be going through your files to see what you’ve got.
“After the installation has finished, lala.com will scan your computer for your music and upload the music to lala.com for access from any computer in the world,” says the company. “Your music is now free from the confines of just one computer.”
Definitely stay tuned.
Also See:
stole music – WMG boss’ kids ’stole music’, DXecember 4, 2006
go through hell – Tanya Andersen beats the RIAA, June 5, 2007
The New York Times – Warner Group in Deal to Offer Free Music via Internet Site, June 5, 2007
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