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  (Source: Andreas Agony/Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
Music label set to offer a veritable buffet of music

SonyBMG is working on an all-you-can-eat, DRM-free subscription service, says SonyBMG CEO Rolf Schmidt-Holtz.

In a Monday interview (English) with the German-language newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Schmidt-Holtz discussed the new service and was quoted as saying that the “simplest option would be a flat rate,” offering access to Sony BMG’s catalog for a monthly fee of 6 to 8 euros ($9 to $12). The service will provide downloads in a format compatible with all music players, including Apple’s iPod.

Naturally, unless Apple decides to license its proprietary FairPlay DRM format, Schmidt-Holtz’s announcement means that service will likely offer its music as DRM-free MP3 files – a concession that he indirectly confirms, noting that it is “even possible that clients could keep some songs indefinitely, that they would own them even after the subscription expired. “

Speaking with the Associated Press, a Bertelsmann spokesman confirmed the interview but refused to provide additional details.

Schmidt-Holtz said his company is also in early talks with mobile phone companies like Nokia, in an effort to provide a subscription service over cellular networks: users could pay a one-time fee, he speculated, and then have unlimited access to music downloads over the air. When pressed for details on if his company is working on something similar for Apple’s iPhone, Schmidt-Holtz neither confirmed nor denied the fact.

In fact, Schmidtz-Holtz spoke warmly of Apple – who is reportedly working on its own subscription service – calling the company a “very strong partner” and noting that everyone benefits from Apple’s success in the digital music arena, even if Sony BMG may soon be competing with it.

It is unclear whether the initiative will have anything to do with Platinum MusicPass, an retail-store MP3 download service launched last January that replaced the company’s ill-fated CONNECT service.

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Hell Freezes Over Part II
By SteelyKen on 3/25/2008 5:21:05 PM , Rating: 2
Wow, this is like The Eagles getting back together.




RE: Hell Freezes Over Part II
By oab on 3/25/2008 5:48:12 PM , Rating: 5
Hell freezes over? It's like Apple releasing a two-button mouse.


RE: Hell Freezes Over Part II
By MrWho on 3/25/2008 6:37:38 PM , Rating: 4
With a scroll wheel...


RE: Hell Freezes Over Part II
By daftrok on 3/25/2008 7:14:20 PM , Rating: 1
Didn't they do that already?


RE: Hell Freezes Over Part II
By Nekrik on 3/25/2008 7:55:44 PM , Rating: 5
not that I've seen.

They did the mighty mouse which is really a mighty peice of crap. To me the MM just shows how stubborn Jobs can be, in a situation where he has users actually asking for a feature (compared to the features Apple tells them they want) he still can't get over himself enough to admit the one button mouse is a poor idea.


RE: Hell Freezes Over Part II
By daftrok on 3/25/2008 11:31:17 PM , Rating: 5
Its weird that he's so gung ho about it. I mean he put Intel processors in his Macs, he has it capable of running Windows Vista (and XP for that matter), he has Microsoft Office, I mean, seriously wtf? Just put a left and right button on your notebooks, make a freaking 2 button mouse with a scroll wheel and left and right buttons. JUST DO IT ALREADY ITS BEEN 11 YEARS!


RE: Hell Freezes Over Part II
By AToZKillin on 3/25/2008 7:13:42 PM , Rating: 3
I know, funny to think of it, right? A few years ago ,they were shoving' dual disc and rootkit down our throats. Now they're willingly taking it up the rear and essentially giving away (though I'm sure that'll be curbed) their entire library for <$20, provided you can download it quickly enough and store it. Well, this is a step in the right direction, though maybe too far. People will definitely take advantage of it and just stockpile early on, then cancel later, primarily because it's so easy to do so (no skill or technique involved, and most people have enough space to DL everything they actually want).


RE: Hell Freezes Over Part II
By goku on 3/25/2008 8:48:39 PM , Rating: 2
I don't think they care, the ones that do that's fine with them, but if they want more music or to discover more music, they'd have to be paying anyways. It's not like they can in one month, download all of the music in the past and in the future, if you want new music, you'd need to continue your subscription. The point is to keep people subscribing, it beneifts everyone really except the audiophiles who STILL don't get their uncompressed file formats like they deserve.


RE: Hell Freezes Over Part II
By walk2k on 3/25/2008 9:47:17 PM , Rating: 3
Nobody said anything about unlimited, uncapped downloads, either.


RE: Hell Freezes Over Part II
By Samus on 3/25/2008 11:08:09 PM , Rating: 2
Considering how open the PS3 is (no region codes, easy swap hard drive, supports tons of piracy-bearing media formats, etc...its all influenced from the same people that demanded this, a distributed media format directly from a label that's DRM free.

The customers.


Impossible
By Etsp on 3/25/2008 5:44:59 PM , Rating: 5
There is no way that they will make a DRM free subscription-based service. Pirates would be able to download all the songs they want in a month, and end the subscription and keep all the songs. There is a misinterpretation on someone's part. It's not clear who, but there is a definite misinterpretation.




RE: Impossible
By InternetGeek on 3/25/2008 6:16:47 PM , Rating: 2
Look at it from this point of view: They got it all wrong with one of the extremes: Full DRM, Limited Quality, Limited playability.

They might get it wrong on the other extreme and we might get a lot of free legal music.

It's amazing how business people can sometimes be so lost. All they need it is to set up a service with a) a fair usage policy b) a fair price that reflects the new way of delivering content.


RE: Impossible
By greylica on 3/25/2008 6:24:34 PM , Rating: 4
They will put a traffic shape into that services :)
Download rates: 20 KBPS
Pirates will have to do a bunch of subscriptions...
Or limit the number of musics per day.
Jokes aside, for the goods, this is good.
DRM is a big s**t.

But...
Only seeing to believe.


RE: Impossible
By Ryanman on 3/25/2008 9:27:28 PM , Rating: 2
I'd have to pay for it once every six months tbh, my music tastes change. I'd drop forty dollars on probably 100 songs which isnt' a terrible deal anyway.


RE: Impossible
By emboss on 3/26/2008 8:23:17 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Pirates would be able to download all the songs they want in a month


It's not like there's anything stopping them from doing that already ;)


RE: Impossible
By MrBlastman on 3/26/2008 10:05:48 AM , Rating: 2
Microsoft has had a similar service for a while now I hear. You can d/l as much as you want.

Look at it this way - they are at least PAYING for something for a change.

I think it is great. Download all you can in a couple of months and be done with the music industry.

If they offer it - and you pay for it legitimately - where are you doing something wrong?

If they allow you to do it and you don't have to beat the system or use software hacks such as macro tools, then that is their own fault (or maybe their intention?).


*cough*
By Desslok on 3/25/2008 5:28:11 PM , Rating: 4
*cough* watch out for Root Kits *cough*




RE: *cough*
By SlipDizzy on 3/25/2008 5:34:18 PM , Rating: 2
Root Kits aside, this is a pretty good deal.


RE: *cough*
By MrBlastman on 3/26/2008 10:27:11 AM , Rating: 2
Root Kits are never a good deal.


How can subscriptions be DRM-free?
By MonkeyPaw on 3/25/2008 6:54:26 PM , Rating: 3
I'm a little confused on the concept. How can a subscription service be truly DRM-free? A term like "subscription" certainly suggests that the files will have some sort of limitation. As with any other subscription, once you stop paying, you stop getting. Are these files going to be tied to your subscription somehow? If so, then this is NOT DRM-free content. If Sony lets you keep the files after subscription expiration, then Sony just created a business model that will soon bankrupt them. If your subscription limits your monthly downloads so you only get ~$12 worth of songs each month, then Sony just created the most worthless service to date.

It seems to me that the only way a song can be truly DRM-free is if you pay specifically for the song you downloaded, after which you can play the song anywhere, anytime, no questions asked.




By walk2k on 3/25/2008 9:49:49 PM , Rating: 3
why does it have to be one extreme or the other?

surely they can come up with some kind of $X for X number of songs per month that makes sense both for them and the consumer.

I'll be the first to sign up. Well, if they have higher quality than 128k which is crap.


They still don't get it
By Xirj on 3/25/2008 9:14:53 PM , Rating: 2
It's fun to watch the recording companies scramble for revenue with new twists on old marketing tactics. What they don't realize is that even this DRM-less service is still very unappealing as it is subscription based. I like many other consumers out there have seen the future. With the availability of the Saul Williams and new NIN album as various bit rate MP3's and lossless FLAC's for $5, there is no need for choise-limitting tactics such as these subscription plans.