p2pnet news | Music:- Vodafone says it’ll have Omnifone’s MusicStation rental service available in the UK ready for Christmas.

At £2.00 (about $4.00) a week for unlimited music downloads, it’ll come preloaded on new Vodafone handsets, but will also work with existing phones too (”presumably you’ll be able to download the application from Vodafone’s Live portal”), says TechDigest, continuing:

There’ll be a million tracks available at launch from all four major labels and a bunch of independents, and it goes live in November.

It’ll provide direct competition for whichever UK network does snag the iPhone, as well as for the Nokia Music Store, which is due to launch before Christmas here too.

“Unlike eMusic, it has the four major labels and unlike iTunes or Napster, it’s genuinely mobile,” says The Register, going on:

“But MusicStation’s biggest advantage over the networks’ own music stores is that it’s much easier to use, is cross-carrier, and is very forgiving. So if you lose your handset or change operator, you don’t lose your music. The user interface has received a lot of thought, and offers by far the best experience we’ve seen on a mobile.”

So apart from the fact, you’ll be again padding the pockets of Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, the members of the big four organised music cartel who are trying to sue people of all ages around the world into becoming compliant consumers, will this appeal to you?

If you’re one of the hundreds of millions of people who believe DRM is a dirty word, probably not.

Because the songs are locked down with DRM, much depends on how Omnifone and the carriers market it. If it’s sold as music acquisition, then it has flaws, since your collection disappears when the subscription ends. If it’s sold as a “radio” service, then it offers a lot more value: such as caching and user control. Being able to call up any song on demand, anywhere, is certainly an attractive goal.

Not only but also, “we’ll soon see whether the public have an appetite for paying for digital music,” adds The Register.

“It’s competing with free.”

.Slashdot it!

Also See:

TechDigest - Vodafone signs up MusicStation mobile music service to battle iTunes / Nokia Music Store, September 10, 2007
The Register - MusicStation arrives, but will we pay for digital music?, September 10, 2007

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 6:28 am and is filed under DRM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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