AT&T Deal With eMusic Excludes iPhones 202
ubermiester writes "ArsTechnica reports that AT&T has inked a deal with eMusic, a direct competitor to Apple's iTunes music store. eMusic specializes in independent artists and offers DRM-free content for direct download. For a monthly fee (the number of tracks one can download per month depends on the package) the site's catalog will be available to AT&T customers using Samsung and Nokia handsets, but not the iPhone."
Uh... (Score:5, Informative)
What, exactly, is the story here? That Boo Hoo, I have to continue to pay the much lower cost of 7$US for 40 songs and sync it to my iPhone using iTunes?
Now who is going to be hit with the "cost of cool"?
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People are in shock that you can buy music from walmart.com and put it on an Apple iPod.
Re:Uh... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Totally, and the punchline is, as this post shows, Apple gets bad PR as a side-effect for a deal it has nothing to do with. Everybody loses! Leave it to Ma Bell. Your World. Delivered. At a 500% Markup.
Yes (Score:2)
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go eMusic! (Score:2)
What am I missing? Is downloading songs on the road such a big deal?
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what a choice (Score:3, Insightful)
Hmmm...I wonder what my choice would be.
Now for people without computers, I can see how this is a good deal. I would also say that for kids that into this music, it would be good.
I think the lack of iPhone support is a non issue. I suppose that I can subscribe to emusic myself from my computer, get the music into itunes and then on the iPhone, and not have to waste the phones times downloading music instead of surfing the web. I doubt there is enough bandwidth for both. Next thing you tell me is that I am supposed to be annoyed because I do not have opportunity to spend $3 for ringtones.
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Hmmm...I wonder what my choice would be.
Nice example of a spin. The AT&T offer is inferior since it's many times more expensive (maybe it's woth it if you
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You have a subscription without data traffic? What sort of developing country are you in?
How does DRM-free stuff exclude anyone? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is this "DRM-free" stuff, DRM in disguise? Or is it unscrambled but still in a near-useless proprietary format (which is just about as bad as DRM)? I don't give a damn about Apple's products specifically, but any interoperability problems they have, anyone else is going to have too.
Geez, quit fuckin' with us. You just aren't going to get my money if your stuff doesn't work.
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Delivery (Score:3, Informative)
If you don't want to pay the obscene prices they are charging for this service, you can always get a normal subscription at the eMusic website, download music at your computer and sync to whatever you want just like you always have been able to.
What? (Score:2)
I think the point of the OA is that AT&T has teamed up with the #2 on
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It's a great service that lets me buy music online without having to cheat the artists (a la AllofMp3) or accept the shackles of DRM.
I don't understand (Score:4, Informative)
Using my unlocked Nokia N80, I have always been able to browse eMusic's website using the data portion of my AT&T cell plan. Although I haven't actually tried to download a song that way using my existing eMusic account, I suspect it would work fine, because their site just links directly to MP3 files. Most Nokia phones already have a built-in MP3 player as well.
Dumb sensationalism (Score:3, Insightful)
This may change in the future, but that's entirely up to Apple. It's their platform, they can do what they want with it. You're free to purchase, or not purchase, from them.
Not to mention that because emusic is entirely DRM free, you're free to download them normally on your desktop and then put it in iTunes. I do it with an iPod every month...
Sheesh, even mediocre announcements are trying to ride iPhone hype.
Make the wording is hypish (Score:2)
Easy choice (Score:5, Insightful)
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So? (Score:2)
Why would I want to download to my phone again????
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Something missing (Score:5, Interesting)
Apple is advertising like crazy for the iPhone but it's almost as if AT&T is forbidden from advertising using this relationship. Has this struck anyone else as strange or am I having too much coffee?
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Apple is advertising like crazy for the iPhone but it's almost as if AT&T is forbidden from advertising using this relationship. Has this struck anyone else as strange or am I having too much coffee?
An interesting take, and it might suggest partner friction in other situations. But in this case, there's nothing strange about it. The simple fact is that AT&T doesn't need to advertise the iPhone, since Apple is already spending a lot of money doing it. AT&T isn't losing any iPhone subscribers to other carriers of course, and AT&T even gets brand halo points from Apple's ads (AT&T's tag appears at the end of every iPhone TV spot).
It's very common for device manufacturers to subsidize a
Well ok then, (Score:2)
They have to say it's 'excluded' otherwise the difficult questions would start to get asked like why does the service not work on the iPhone when this so called 'revolutionary' device is shown up yet again by phones that have been around for years.
Get yourself some copylefted music (Score:2, Interesting)
Look for music with the Creative Commons [creativecommons.org] seal of approval. There are Creative Commons search engines [creativecommons.org], in which you can specify whether you want music you can use commercially, or whether you can create derivative works.
There is also the Common Content Catalog [commoncontent.org], which has a Music Section [commoncontent.org].
If you like piano, there is my humble offerring [geometricvisions.com], in a variety of audio formats as well as sheet music. I chose to place my music under the Creativ [creativecommons.org]
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Re:So? (Score:5, Insightful)
What's the opposite of a fanboy? Just as rabid and uninformed and loud, just a detractor? We need a word...
I imagine Apple DEMANDED that any such deals not include the iPhone, to steer iPhone users at iTMS.
Re:So? (Score:4, Funny)
A foeboy.
You may now create a wikipedia page in my honor for coining this word.
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Re:So? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:So? (Score:4, Insightful)
- Songs as Ringtones
- Games
- Any flash support
- Instant Messaging
- Picture messages (MMS)
- Video recording
- Voice recognition or voice dialing
- Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Streaming (A2DP)
- One-size-fits-all headset jack (May have to buy an adapter for certain headphones)
- 3G (EV-DO/HSDPA)
- GPS
- keyboard or any real good way to text
- Removable battery
- Expandable Storage
- Direct iTunes Music Store Access (Over Wi-Fi or EDGE)
Most of these features are available on free phones. I have a Samsung I've had for a while that can play full TV episodes, songs, etc. I've got a 2 gig storage card, and the phone is great. It was free, and in most regards trumps the basic phone features of the iPhone.
Honestly, when Nokia puts out a similiar touch-screen PDA equivalent phone, except it is light-years better at HALF the price, you really can't make a single logical argument for the iPhone being worth $600. So don't begin to pretend that detractors are just jealous and want one. If I wanted a PDA phone I'd buy the Nokia. I had a Treo, but frankly it was cumbersome as a phone, and as much as I really love gadgets, I need my phone to work as a phone.
It's not about feature lists (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's see, common features the iPhone lacks:
I'm sure you use all of those features to their full potential. But a feature count is a terrible way to determine whether a product really is any good in actual use. Apple has targeted ease of use and overall user experience with the iPhone. Frankly I don't know if they've hit the mark with the iPhone or not, because I've never used one. But just because it doesn't have 25 features that I may or may not ever use doesn't mean I'm going to dismiss it out of hand.
as much as I really love gadgets
The iPhone isn't a device for you. It's for people who are tired of smartphones that aren't smart, and of devices that are jammed full of features yet still aren't satisfying to use. Again, I don't know if it fulfills its promise, but it doesn't make sense to judge it a success or failure on a feature count. It is much more useful to judge it against its promise, which is to provide a smartphone-type device that non-techies will enjoy using.
This reminds me of the iPod rollout, and all the comments about how pathetic it was in comparison to the Nomad, et al.
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I never figured that for the
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Given that there are free phones with more alternatives, and smart phones starting as low as $50 in most places, I'm not sure the iPhone can ever be the cheapest of the alternatives. You must not be looking, but hey if you want to drop $600, go right ahead.
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On the other hand, its formfactor, screen/footprint/thickness ratios, responsive and reliable OS, intuitive and fast interface, durable capacitance tou
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The n800 series is like 7 oz and the iPhone is like 5 oz. The n800 is designed to be a bit bigger because if you're going to be a tablet and allow web-surfing and such, a slightly bigger s
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Feature-rich web browser? Where is the Flash support? Oh, it doesn't exist. Is it ACID complaint? Nope. Does it have problems with CSS? Yes. In fact, Apple suggested that people need to redesign valid css and xhtml so our websites work better with the iPhone.
[citation needed]
Seriously: Safari is based on Webkit, which is in turn based on KHTML, which renders ACID2 perfectly. Are Apple actually unable to recompile some existing, working code without screwing it up?
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The N800 isn't even a PHONE! (Score:2)
What's next? A comparison between a MacBook and a PS3?
(And don't start about VOIP. That's good as a backup, but you aren't going to roam the streets looking for an open WAP when you need to make a phone call!)
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Many of the iPhone's listed capabilities are based on web-based communication, like the video chat and such. So Apple gets to use those claims, but no one else?
That seems partial. Way to be objective.
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But.. [looks at his iPhone and his missing $600], it doesn't suck really, right? It's revolutionary and.. I mean.. it's Apple, yeeei
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Fixed that for you.
Re:Too much for not enough (Score:4, Interesting)
But you have to ask for permission first. Some of us don't like having to ask permission to use something we own.
iTMS+ songs are DRM free (and at $1.29, cheaper than eMusic).
This new phone service costs more than itunes, yes. But regular emusic plans run about $0.30/song.
5 * $0.99 is not $8.00
True, they should price their phone service more in line with their internet service.
eMusic's catalog is not identical to iTMS (eMusic is smaller/indie music).
True enough, emusic's catalog is much better.
The only real downside I see to emusic is that they're still using MP3s. AAC is pretty sweet.
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But you have to ask for permission first. Some of us don't like having to ask permission to use something we own.
Asking yourself for permission hardly counts. YOU authorize YOUR account to be used on a computer YOU designate. Apple's only involvement is to limit those authorizations to five concurrent ones. You don't need anything for iPods or iPhones.
True, they should price their phone service more in line with their internet service.
Blame AT&T for the pricing. The novelty here is access anywhere from your handheld device, which is how they'll try to pawn off the higher price.
True enough, emusic's catalog is much better.
I like eMusic and their catalog. But iTunes has well over five million tracks from a tremendous number of popular
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And that's fair enough... but if eMusic
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And the music gets on to the iPod by, uh, what? Telekinesis? It comes via the computer. Which has to be authorized. What was your so-called point?
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unless you just randomly walk around accessing your itunes account from different computers there's no issue at all. if you have itunes on your computer, when it's charging you upload it to your iphone. it's not like you have to enter your password constantly on the same computer nor to put it on any ipod or iphone from that computer. but thanks for your ridicu
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AAC's patent doesn't allow GPL players (Score:2)
But the AAC patent license terms don't even permit players without a licensing fee. This is a significant obstacle for a GPL program I'm working on called Ogg Frog [oggfrog.com].
You will surely raise an objection by giving the examples of VLC Media Player, which supports AAC, and the lame MP3 encoder and faad/faac AAC decoder/encoder. But VLC
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Says you and the EULA.
Rip the DRM off already and use the music YOU PAID FOR as you see fit.
Oh wait, I'm sorry, Apple's DRM is unbreakable. Yeah...um, don't change a thing Apple, it works perfectly! Keeps me out! Yessireeee Boberty!
Parent is mistaken (Score:2)
"iTMS+ songs are DRM free (and at $1.29, cheaper than eMusic)."
Wrong. The "normal" emusic plans average at approximately 40c per song. All are DRM free, high-bitrate MP3s.
"eMusic's catalog is not identical to iTMS (eMusic is smaller/indie music)."
eMusic's catalog is (I think) larger than iTunes', however it lacks the big-name, heavily-promoted music.
I'm not bagging iTunes. I agree, this AT&T eMusic plan sounds crap compared to eMusic's normal offering (which rocks
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Songs bought form iTMS can be played on 5 computers and an unlimited number of iPhones and iPods.
That's all well and good until your iPod breaks and you're in the market for another player. Who knows what could be available years from now - there could be some very compelling products on the market that compare quite favorably to the iPod, but you won't have the choice if your music collection is locked with iTunes DRM.
Or you could do what I do, which is to rip the couple thousand CDs I own into iTunes. No DRM, and ripped at the highest bitrate.
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Or you could do what I do, which is to rip the couple thousand CDs I own into iTunes. No DRM, and ripped at the highest bitrate.
That's exactly what I do, though I don't use iTunes at all. I generally encode things into mp3 format for the iPod, and LAME is better than iTunes for encoding mp3s (at least, it was the last time I tried using iTunes, which was a few years ago).
I have an emusic subscription as well, which is great for discovering new music, and the cost of downloading an album is usually far below the the cost of a real CD. Of coarse, the bitrate isn't always what I'd like, but it's good enough for my iPod.
I'm not going t
Re:Too much for not enough (Score:4, Informative)
Their catalog is all indie labels though, so if you're into top 40 pop chart stuff, stick with iTunes. Sir Paul's new album is also available through eMusic, but that's probably not indicative of anything.
Not a rental. (Score:4, Informative)
That said, $7.50 for 5 songs is far more than I would be willing to pay just for the convenience of downloading directly on the phone. Especially considering that their normal plan is $10 for 30 songs. The only use that I can think for that would be impulse purchases (at party, ooh I want to hear ) but that's not what eMusic's catalog is tailored towards.
They are also your backup! (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess I'm an eMusic fan-boy...I just love the small/indie/obscure tracks and the pure MP3 files.
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You don't rent music from EmuSic, you buy it. You have to buy it at a flat rate, however. You pay a fixed monthly fee, and are then allowed to download n songs per month, where n is dependent on the amount you pay.
This does seem very expensive, considering that music from eMusic is usually around 33/track. It presumably includes the data service, but since you get DRM-free MP3s from eMusic, why not just download them on your computer and send them over with USB or Bluetooth, or whatever your phone use
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Next time don't ask that little troll that's hiding in your cupboard about sales numbers: he's lying to you and taking the money!
Re:Apple probably likes the deal. (Score:4, Informative)
Can you hear my eyes rolling?
Re:Apple probably likes the deal. (Score:4, Informative)
The genius of eMusic is that they don't try to compete head-to-head with iTunes or the iPod - instead, they work together.
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If I usnderstand their business practices correctly, eMusic unilaterally chose not to get themselves into a battle against iTunes, where all others (Napster, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc) failed to become profitable.
Legal on-line music distribution is a difficult business to get into. eMusic found a decent way - one which permits the user to keep their rela
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This doesn't address Linux support, but on Windows you use them as a music store in WMP 11 instead of using their download manager.
I like classical and electronica, both of which are very well-represented on eMusic. And this way I'm not funding the mafiaa labels either.
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I'm not seeing how that's a problem.
Also there's a proprietary download manager, so Linux support is iffy
There's a java [kallisti.net.nz] client, so linux support isn't a big deal. But yeah, it would be nice to use wget.
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The reason I cancelled, though, was the fact that your monthly downloads don't rollover when you don't use them all. If they did, I would probably still be a subscriber.
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So use it. The download manager is a preference that can be changed.
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You can disable the download manager. Go to Your Account, Download Options, Change Download Manager. This way when you click to download a song you get your browser's standard dialog for saving a file.
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What exactly is not honest or straightforward about Apple's products, services and corporate culture?
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What's dishonest about that?
What's dishonest about that? Did they advertise false prices?
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Of, if you don't care about getting the music while you are mobile, you could just download it on your Mac or PC, and sync it with the iPhone via iTunes.
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That said, it seems like a much better value to just use eMusic on your home host and not on yer cellphone. This is probably a gimme by ATT to Nokia and Samsung, so they don't get the feeling that their handsets are being neglected.
Posted from my iPhone.
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It sounds like this service is the equivalent of a hotel minibar. If you have a regular cell phone (that cannot access eMusic's full website) and you don't know how to transfer MP3s to y
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Don't hotels usually have running water in the suites? Why would you do either of the above, when free water conveniently where you are?
Re:so what? (Score:4, Informative)
an iPhone user can buy songs on iTMS for less.
Also, it's not like Napster where you "rent" the songs. The files are just regular DRM-free mp3s. If you cancel your subscription, you still keep what you've downloaded.
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I remember back in the day (about 5 years ago) when I was an eMusic subscriber. I joined because They Might Be Giants had their entire catalog on eMusic and I could get all the tracks I was missing, including the internet only "Long Tall Weekend". At tha
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I ask because I don't know the answer; I don't use any of them.
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That's an issue of those download (rental) services, not the iPod. My daughter has a Mini. I'd be very surprised if she has more than 2 or 3 tracks on it that were actually bought from iTunes.
She does have a lot of tracks that came from my former eMusic subscription.
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No, the iTunes store sells songs from independent artists and major labels. Thus making them direct competitors.
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Err, no, its Apple and eMusic, I think you're confused.
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There's two stories on the front page atm, the other one being the revolutionary news of a 0.0.1 version update. (I don't recall ever seeing news for phone updates before, even major revisions...)
(And I don't think you can either filter the stories out, like you can say with the usual Apple stories, because they don't appear to be in the Apple category.)