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Music Media The Internet Hardware

Home Stereo Equipment With Online Music Purchasing 199

Posted by michael from the one-click dept.
nebulous bee writes "Yahoo is reporting on a new piece of home stereo equipment going on sale in Japan that has an ethernet port that can be linked directly to an online music store. You can purchase new music using the unit's built-in LCD display and hear it 'instantly'. No PC required. There are no plans to sell it yet outside of the land of the rising sun."
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Home Stereo Equipment With Online Music Purchasing More

Home Stereo Equipment With Online Music Purchasing

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  • I wonder if it has sound outputs? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Else, oh no, someone might make a copy of the music they purchased for themselves.

  • Not appealing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by YouHaveSnail ( 202852 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @01:53PM (#7273520)
    For some reason, having my stereo hooked up to the net buying songs seems just a little too close to pay-per-use than I'm comfortable with.

  • Great (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Now when this piece of hardware breaks I lose my entire music collection? No Thanks!
  • I mean... no PC nedded...

    That means, store goes out of business... protocol changes... not to mention if you decide for a USB modem... SUCKER!!!

    This will never work.

    I mean, geez, like it's really difficult to buy music using a PC.

    • Why not just lease the hardware so that if the service changes, they have to replace your hardware too, and if the service terminates, they get the hardware back. Like a cable box. How many people complain about pay-per-view cable? (Well, all right, a few do, but not as many as bitch at the RIAA about "Copy-protected" CDs.)

  • good (Score:3, Interesting)

    by happyfrogcow ( 708359 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @01:54PM (#7273535)
    There are no plans to sell it yet outside of the land of the rising sun."

    Good. I don't want my stereo, or anything else besides my computer, networked and DRM'd to death. I'm starting to not even want my computer networked.

    • Re:good (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I too would like to live in a cave.

  • Very cool, even if it won't be here in the States. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by /dev/trash ( 182850 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @01:54PM (#7273545) Homepage Journal
    It will be Linux based, and will work with NetMD disks.

  • this shouldn't sound unusual (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dreadlord ( 671979 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @01:54PM (#7273547) Journal
    I guess this is what we are going to in the near future, all of our appliances will have some sort of computer inside them, a computer that's capable of doing what the appliance needs.
    So later we may read a /. story about a refrigerator that allows you to buy groceries online, it's just a matter of time.

  • Apple? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by TrippTDF ( 513419 ) <hiland@NOSpAM.gmail.com> on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @01:54PM (#7273549)
    Could this be the next step for Apple? It would make sense to me. A $500 to $700 device that looks good, is linked to your Mac and iTMS account, and looks really, really cool. I give it a year to six months.

    • They already have one (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Neuracnu Coyote ( 11764 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @01:59PM (#7273629) Homepage Journal
      It's called an iPod. Just add a $2 stereo Y cable from any old electronics store and it plugs into every rack system known to man.
    • Bah, you can do it now. Go to eBay, buy a Bondi Blue iMac for about $250, load up Jaguar (or wait a few days for Panther), connect it to your home network, connect it to your stereo. Bingo! A computer hooked up to your stereo that you can buy music with.
    • No, because with everything they have already, a service like this would be redundant. Right now, you just download songs with iTMS, upload them to your iPod, and plug it into your stereo. There's no reason for Apple to provide another way of doing something that can be done already. They're more creative than that.
      • There will always be folks who don't like the idea of uploading music to an iPod and then manually moving the iPod to their stereo system.

        Now this would be a cool feature: iTunes already has the ability to share out music, right? What if Apple came up with a piece of stereo equipment similar to the article that acted as a client to iTunes? Hook it up to your network and to your stereo, enter the (optional) iTunes password, and voila! music.

        It eliminates the need to move the iPod back and forth each time
        • now you're talking, although, what with the release of windows itunes, one could put together an epia or somesuch windows box running silent (or very quiet) with a wireless nic and tv/audio out.

          the only thing that would really be required would be the ability to remote control it via an IR handset (which I can mirror to my universal remote).

          that would be very cool

          dave

  • crazy. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Maagma ( 714192 )
    OH no! Little Johnny accidentally bought 5,000 songs on the home stereo. There goes his college education.

  • JukeBox (Score:3, Funny)

    by clinko ( 232501 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @01:57PM (#7273598) Journal
    They have JukeBoxes that do this in the U.S. now. I always request "Kokomo"

  • My Laptop (Score:2, Interesting)

    by HermanZA ( 633358 )
    machine can do that too. So what is so revolutionary about this? I have been using an old IBM Stinkpad as a stereo system for quite some time now. Sounds great when hooked up to a 600W stereo amplifier with 12 inch woofers and an array of horn tweeters. Stinkpads are good for something after all...
    • It's revolutionary because people are paying for the music and receiving it very quickly. You're either buying CDs (I doubt it) or downloading the music. If everyone downloaded the music, and had your little stereo hookup, how do you plan on compensating the artists?
      • How exactly does buying a CD "compensate the artists" either?
  • when the box craps out and you lose all your saved songs you didn't burn to the mini-disk? And I can see it now.... "You seem to like Britteny Spears songs, so I took the liberty of purchasing her entire new album for you" :-)
  • Of course they have no plans to sell it here in the States ... Microsoft would accuse them of being monopolistic for only allowing the songs to be played on that stereo!
  • You can purchase new music using the unit's built-in LCD display and hear it 'instantly'. No PC required.

    It's been suggested that Apple should try this very thing -- Wi-Fi functionality built into an iPod that would allow it to download music from the iTunes Music Store via wireless broadband and making the computer entirely optional.

    Nobody's said that Apple's actually pursuing the technology, but you gotta admit it's a mighty good idea.

    • Re:talk to Apple (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Golias ( 176380 )
      WiFi would drain that poor little iPod battery in no time, though.

      Besides, if they just added IR remote control to the Dock and designed it for racks & cabinets, it would be an even better solution than a stereo with built-in MP3. It would take the place of your CD player on your stereo shelf, plugged in to the amp, pre-amp, or receiver of your choice.

      Integrated, does-everything devices are far more popular in Japan than over here. Cheaper land allows us to have bigger houses or apartments, which m

  • I'm cool with my LP's (Score:5, Funny)

    by niko9 ( 315647 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @01:58PM (#7273620)
    When that rogue nation ICBM hits in a town near you, and the EMP wipes out all your ethernet purchased "eeeemusic" from your "peeceees", I'll be warm in cozy in my bomb shelter with a can of spam and my vinyl records -thank you very much.

    --
    • When that rogue nation ICBM hits in a town near you, and the EMP wipes out all your ethernet purchased "eeeemusic" from your "peeceees", I'll be warm in cozy in my bomb shelter with a can of spam and my vinyl records -thank you very much.

      ...if you live in any of the half dozen countries that will be wiped out because they may have had something to do with it, or they have some oil Bush needs to secure...

      Kjella
  • I Might like this.

    Linux based device that lets you purchase the songs, and you can use them on any other like devices through the mini-disk - or, as the article says, any other "normal" entertainment system. (Or just mini-disk accepting ones, or can you burn to CD? Details are lacking on that regard.)

    Charges $2 per song file - a bit much, but if its DRM free I could go for that.

    The biggest question is of course the format. Is this a lossy format, so we're losing some quality, and when we burn it to a
  • The winner will be whoever gets this technology into wi-fi mp3 players. But then again, a bluetooth connection between PC and stereo would be pretty sweet.

    I would also like to see a way to play a song once for a lower price than buying it outright.
  • I can import one and get all of the new Shoyu Weeni tunes.

    If you don't get it, you need to watch more Harvey Birdman.

  • Music rights (Score:2, Troll)

    by Sean80 ( 567340 )
    So I pretty much got called an idiot the other day for saying that it pisses me off that Apple won't let me re-download music from their servers if I ever happen to lose the music that I've bought. Back it up, they said. If you're stupid enough to not back it up, then you deserve to lose your music, they said.

    So what happens with a piece of kit like this? If I lose my stereo, or buy a new one, do I have to buy my music again? How on earth is this different from the situation with Windows XP nowadays, wher

    • How is this different than a CD? If you lose your CD, you have to buy another one. The record label or retail store isn't going to give you a new CD to replace the one you lost, right? Why should online stores be held to a higher standard?
    • Let me get this straight -- you're blaming DRM because you deleted some files and Apple won't replace them? I don't see how DRM is relevant -- if they'd sold you MP3's that you deleted, you'd still be in trouble. Heck, if they were CD's, you'd still be in trouble -- try going back to The Wiz to ask for a replacement for a CD that you microwaved.
    • And the reason you wouldn't record the song to your minidisc player like they tell you you can? You did read that part of the article, didn't you?

    • Re:Music rights (Score:3, Insightful)

      by mcpkaaos ( 449561 )
      If you pay good money for a service that ends up not meeting your expectations, complain about it, then continue to subscribe to said service... then you are an idiot. You raise one fist in anger while forking over your cash with the other. Not a very potent message.

      Now, I don't agree that you should not be able to download music you've purchased as often as you'd like, but as a consumer, it is not my decision. Nor is it yours. Our choice is simply to give them our money or not. I choose not to, as I
  • it's called Pay-per-view.
  • ( ) fully addressed my question

    ( ) partially addressed my question but could be more complete or detailed

    ( ) did not address my question at all

    [ SUBMIT! ]
  • iPod -> Amp -> Speakers. And sometimes,

    iTunes -> Amp -> Speakers.

    Everything else can go fuck itself 'cause music-wise, I'm done.

  • And tomorrow, Microsoft will announce that this service is "too limiting" and will announce their competing service.
  • What? You mean the U.S. doesn't get daylight anymore? bummer.
  • I have a piece of equipment that sits in my house and plays free(!!!) music, received via a wireless protocol. It has analog sound output that I can hook up to a computer. Is that cool or what!

    • Unfortunately its playlists can have no more than 40 songs on it at a time and somebody else actually chooses the playlists for you.
      • Unfortunately its playlists can have no more than 40 songs

        Well, they some of these, so called "public stations", that just play all sorts of music I like with a very long playlists :)

        • Unfortunately, someone like me whose last five songs on the iPod just now were by:

          1. Van Halen
          2. Chris Cornell
          3. Ennio Morricone
          4. Kate Bush
          5. Danzig

          I have nowhere to go but my iPod. ;-)

  • Too bad Apple is preventing me from using it... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Quarters ( 18322 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @02:08PM (#7273756)
    Yup, according to Microsoft, now that I've installed iTunes on my PC Apple is preventing me from using other online music purchase choices.

    Even if this came to the States I couldn't use it. Thanks Apple, thanks bunches.

  • For me besides the low bitrates (yes i know AAC is better than mp3), is the fact that I cannot easily play music on my audiotron. All of these DRM based music services restrict the users ability to format shift under the supposed intent of preventing piracy. Apparently, these music execs have forgotten that with P2P, you only need one seed to propogate quickly across the network.

    So as a person who is a heavy music buyer, audio freak, and computer lover, you think I and others would be gun ho about these m

  • I knew this was comming. Pay for play jukeboxes in your home. Say goodby to your cd folks, in ten years they'll be phased out. Ok, I'm exaggerating. The infrastructure isn't in place in the U.S. and may never be. Even so, I have no doubt this is the direction the music industry wants to go, and boy am I hoping they fail.
  • before an iPod adapter for this? Kinda like the Siruis boombox.

    Seems like a hell of a digital hub product. As long as there are no ads and same price (or cheaper) for the iTunes music store, I see this doing well.

    But then again... I'm not very good at holding my breath.

  • Differences in Japan's music scene (Score:3, Informative)

    by dinodriver ( 577264 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @02:21PM (#7273910)
    There are some interesting differences in Japan's music industry that should be considered.

    1) cd prices are fixed, at least for a certain time period after the release. when i lived there it was 3000 yen (US$27) for an album and 1000yen (US$9)for a single.

    2) they have a much stronger emphasis on singles over albums. mini-cd singles are sold in huge numbers, for 1000 yen.

    3) they have CD rental shops much the way many countries have video/dvd rental shops. I think albums rent for like 400 yen and singles 200 yen? Can't remember.

    Therefore, this is a country whose music industry is not as concerned with home copying of the music (otherwise they wouldn't rent them), has people convinced a single is worth 1000 yen and so selling them as downloads for 210 yen can be successful even though this is like twice what apple charges, and has a music buying public that is used to buying songs one at a time instead of buying albums.
  • When my roomate and I redid our apartment with wifi we figured out we had a few more ports we could play with, so we dug out an old p200, set it to pick up a shoutcast from an ip range (so it would pick up either my shoutcast or my roomate's). Instant jukebox for our home theater. We even got a wireless keyboard, mounted it to the wall and trade off the reciever to whoever is broadcasting for a party. Less than 100 bucks in parts and i see a virtually identical system in the Best Buy ad for $400. God bless

  • Pet Peave (Score:2, Informative)

    by PerlPooch ( 530411 )
    Three Letter Acronyms. Argh. LCD Display = Liquid Crystal Display Display

    • Re:Pet Peave (Score:4, Funny)

      by otisaardvark ( 587437 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @05:15PM (#7275857)
      Yeah, I hate redundancy in my TLA acronyms, but I can't stay, my ABS system in my car has broken - the DC current overloaded as it was controlled by the DOS operating system - it says so via an LED diode on my LCD display here.

      Incidentally, I'm having a GOP party to celebrate passing my GRE exam, please RSVP.

      PS, these paragraph things are funky, don't you love HTML language?

  • So it's an in-home "buy" button for the LabelGate service. Great. One more scheme to perpetuate the myth that record companies are still necessary.

    On the positive side, one more potentially nifty piece of hackable home media center hardware that will be available cheap when it's discontinued.
  • Sure it's not your five-foot mega-spiffy setup that costs $10,000 and is distinct enough to let you hear a pin drop, but with all the allergens in the NE stuffing me up I usually can't hear a pin drop in the real world anyway. My desktop is all the music center I'll ever need, and it also plays games and finds free porn. Let's see your MP3 stereo do that.

  • No PC required? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bluethundr ( 562578 ) * on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @03:13PM (#7274514) Homepage Journal
    You can purchase new music using the unit's built-in LCD display and hear it 'instantly'. No PC required.

    It's always amazed me how high tech gadgets are marketed as being "not computers" when that's exactly what they are! Things like the "Earthlink Mailstation" [earthlink.net] that allows you to "check your e-mail without a computer". I'm pretty sure I've even seen advertizing for TiVo [tivo.com] claiming that it wasn't a "computer". Amazingly, Joe Blow consumers seem to not even think of gaming [xbox.com] consoles [playstation.com] as computing devices! I realize that this is done so as not to scare away the technilogically illiterate, but I still reserve the right to incredulity every time these claims are made! Seriously, without computing technology how do people think these things work? Little men with pointy shoes and long beards reaching to their knees inside the case?
    • Well, rather obviously those devices have CPU's, storage, etc., so they're "computers" in the technical sense. But when a normal person says "computer" what they mean is "personal computer" that is a complex, general purpose computing device, and not "cell phone" or "pager" or "watch" or "videogame" -- all of which are simple to use, specialized computing devices. The key difference is simplicity -- people don't want to deal with complex, unpredictable devices. So when a marketing person says "no PC require
    • It's always amazed me how high tech gadgets are marketed as being "not computers" when that's exactly what they are! (...) Seriously, without computing technology how do people think these things work? Little men with pointy shoes and long beards reaching to their knees inside the case?

      No, but computing is quite different from the general understanding of computer. My car is a computing device. My washing machine is a computing device. My VCR is a computing device. My cell phone is a computing device. The
  • Frankly, I don't want a "buy" button on my stereo. Too easy to push when drunk.
  • Apparently it has "an ethernet port that can be linked directly to a music store."

    I don't particularly want my hi-fi to stick out the side of a music store and nor do I want to buy miles of ethernet cable and a whole lot of repeaters.
  • if you had a beowulf cluster of these things?
  • If they had a system that enabled on-line music publishing I know several people who would sign up...Of course, they'd need to support the web pages.

    (Mind you, I didn't say I'd be willing to listen. Wanting to publish your music, and having decent music to publish are two different things. But then I won't buy CDs, either. And even before I had political reasons, my selection was quite limited, so what do I know.)

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