HMV, Virgin, music downloads
p2pnet.net News:- HMV and Virgin, Britain’s largest record stores, have decided they can’t afford to be left out of the as-yet undeveloped corporate online music biz.
Both plan to launch download services and HMV Digital is slated to go live next Monday (September 5), says DigitalBulletin. But, it says, “Rival Virgin is attempting to steal a march on HMV by launching its Virgin Digital service on Friday.
“HMV is already trumpeting its digital service. To promote it, the retailer has forged an unholy alliance between The Who rock legend Roger Daltrey and hugely annoying, but popular, boy-band McFly to perform a cover of The Who’s ‘My Generation’.”
DigitalBulletin says Virgin has said no more than it’ll offer a million tracks, the identical standard fare the Big Four record labels flog to all their customers at exorbitant wholesale prices.
But you guessed it: iPod users won’t be able to use either service, even if they want to because Apple has “refused to make the portable music device compatible with the services” and in one report, HMV described Apple’s decision as “regrettable” but”‘fashion tends to move on,” adds the story.
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See:-
DigitalBulletin – HMV and Virgin launch rival digital download services, August 31, 2005
standard fare – More IFPI disinformation, July 21, 2005
exorbitant wholesale prices – Apple versus everyone else, August 28, 2005
August 31st, 2005 at 3:42 pm
If we can’t purchase music tracks for the iPod (or for that matter, any general MP3 player), then we’ll just have to rip our own.
If they block us from ripping our own purchased CD’s, then we’ll circumvent this block and share with our friends.
The RIAA made the first move by sueing it’s own customers, we retaliate by refusing to purchase any RIAA owned music. They can blame it on anything they choose, the facts are the facts.
August 31st, 2005 at 4:15 pm
Hmmmm… Actually Apple is not completely to blame that those “services” are incompatible with its little overpriced gizmo. After all, the underlaying music is the same, and the package is just bytes in a computer file. The real problem here is spelled D-R-M, the “protection” mechanism that prevents legitimate customers to use their music the way they want to. Remove the extra baggage and the music automagically becomes compatible with every single digital music player known to man, portable or otherwise.
That, of course, doesn’t mean that I’m excusing Apple of any blame. They are just another tentacle in the head of the same ugly hag.
August 31st, 2005 at 6:58 pm
“Remove the extra baggage and the music automagically becomes compatible with every single digital music player known to man, portable or otherwise.”
Actually, even without DRM, Apple’s default file format (an “Applized” version of AAC If I remember right) is not currently supported by a lot of players out there, portable or otherwise. Just an FYI.
Whe ripping CDs with iTunes one can specify the MP3 format. Even though the file size is bigger I strongly suggest using this option. Then your files will play on other players (and Apple has a bit less control over the fate of your music).
August 31st, 2005 at 9:28 pm
WMA is windows media audio.. apple did not build their ipod with support for their competitor’s format.
These services launched using WMA.. ALL THE WHILE KNOWING THAT IPODS ACCOUNT FOR OVER 80% of the market.
End of story.. apple is not to blame for refusing to voluntarily climb under the thumb of microsoft, especially when these services know the statistics on ipod adoption.
August 31st, 2005 at 9:33 pm
AAC is an open format pioneered by adobe.
the advanced audio codec is not “appleized” when it’s ripped from a cd in your home. only itunes “store” files have any DRM on them at all. Don’t use those and it’s standard AAC, playable by anyone who installs any one of numerous open source or proprietary players, including winamp.
I suggest you look at the fact that these player companies support WMA but refuse to support aac, I suspect some unfair contract terms on the part of microsoft.. but YOU GUYS AT P2Pnet just continue on PARROTING RIAA PRESS RELEASES that apple is this horrible evil corp for refusing to crawl under it’s biggest competitor’s thumb with ipod. Because I’m sure you would be just dandy having microsoft breathing down your neck to pay ever-increasing shares of your profit margin for WMA licensing.