Ad-Supported Free Music Downloads Doomed to Failure? 226
madonna writes "CNET extensively explains why the new We7.com download service — which offers ad-embedded free music downloads without DRM — is doomed to failure. 'This service absolutely, categorically will not succeed. You can quote us on that. It's true the best way to combat piracy is to provide a realistic and affordable alternative, and free is certainly affordable. But music downloaders are not going to switch to using a service that costs the same as using BitTorrent or Limewire, but comes with abominable disclaimers or advertisements.'"
The Elected Ones (Score:3, Interesting)
Removing the ads (Score:2, Interesting)
disingenuous? (Score:5, Interesting)
I mean why would it? Must be a coincidence, surely...
Notable advertising failures. (Score:5, Interesting)
At some point, ads get too intrusive. Some notable failures:
Besides, music already has ads. 50 Cent mentioned 20 brands in his songs in 2005, according to American Brandstand. "Mercedes emerged as the top brand of the year, and 50 Cent outbranded the rest to become the top brand-dropping artist... Meanwhile, weapon brands surged..."
Re:Morality is hard to define (Score:2, Interesting)
PS: IANAPhilosopher, but as best as I can tell, morality doesn't exist.
Extortion racket? (Score:2, Interesting)
Pay more to remove something that shouldn't be there anyway - something THEY added to stop you having fair use of the music.
Seems like an extortion racket to me.
DRM (Score:2, Interesting)
It's actually DENIAL of FAIR USE. DFU. Call it DFU. When you're explaining why it's DFU instead of the industry's pet name, just say "Disney Fucks U."
DFU. That's the framing which will help to change people's minds. Don't say DRM any longer. It's not about their rights, it's about OUR fair use rights as citizens.
Re:Big Surprise (Score:4, Interesting)
Looks like you can DL the song, shelve it for a few weeks, then have it add free. Sounds good to me.
I hate ads, but I like free music. I can wait.
For those who didn't actually download from We7 (Score:4, Interesting)
- There's a 10 second ad clip in the beginning for We7. After that, the music starts.
- Half the song later, no second ad, just music.
- The music inexplicably stops 10 seconds before the song's done, but there's still no second ad.
I don't know how they make money off of advertising their own service in the beginning of the song. Does anyone have an answer for this? And couldn't anyone just download a song, then import it in an audio editor like Audacity, delete the 10 second ad in the beginning and export it back? A quick scan of the terms [we7.com] doesn't seem to prohibit that.
Re:Morality is hard to define (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Morality is hard to define (Score:2, Interesting)
Talk radio... the evil infiltrator . (Score:3, Interesting)
I remember when commercial radio was like this... where you could passivly listen to music, 2-4 songs and then an equal amount of time was dedicated to commercials and dj jabber. Odds were you could hop stations if the commercial breaks really bothered you.
Now... I have a hard time crusing the FM dial without finding some radio station that hasn't been infiltrated by the "talk radio craze", which is some solo jackass with a string monologs lasting for 8 hours, not related to the music, but usually a cry of moral outrage over scented toilet paper followed by fart jokes.
I for one welcome our music serving commercial overlords... at least there is MUSIC.
Re:Big Surprise (Score:3, Interesting)
How do they say that, I wonder. (Score:4, Interesting)
Is that "wee-seven"? Or do they try to amalgamate the words into "weven" or something?
Who here thinks that having a short URL was a key part of their plan to get venture capital...? (Raises hand) Who thinks this will save them...? Anybody?