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Music Media Communications Technology

MP3s From The Phone Box 183

Posted by timothy from the time-travel-was-only-phase-1 dept.
An Economist writes "The .com bubble has come and gone, but the great ideas and implementations are starting to come through thick and fast now. The BBC reports on a planned development in the UK - download MP3s (or the like) from the phone box. Walking along the street and fancy a song - just plug in your iPod/MuVo/iRiver/whatever... awesome! Perhaps the lauded benefits of eCommunication are just beginning to be felt - plus it increases the viability of old-tech phone boxes, which are socially beneficial but financially challenged."
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MP3s From The Phone Box More

MP3s From The Phone Box

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  • Interesting Thought (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Oculus Habent ( 562837 ) * <oculus.habent@gm ... Nom minus author> on Sunday October 24, 2004 @10:50PM (#10617730) Journal
    Internet access - presumably high-speed, if you are downloading a song and not expecting to wait 20 minutes - and portable storage connectivity could be good, but it will be interesting to see how the technology works out.

    I'm envisioning someone figuring out how to boot off an iPod and using spare hard drive space to trade pirated software.

    Hmm... Warezchalking?

    • Re:Interesting Thought (Score:5, Funny)

      by ScrewMaster ( 602015 ) on Sunday October 24, 2004 @11:19PM (#10617872)
      Nah ... warjiving.
    • "I'm envisioning someone figuring out how to boot off an iPod and using spare hard drive space to trade pirated software."

      Why? what's the point?

      Why would anyone want to do that?

      • If I have pirated software on my computer, you can charge me. If it's sitting on British Telecom's hardware, can you prove it's mine?

        Sure it's far-fetched, but it could happen. High-capacity music players are good at this sort of thing. [slashdot.org] The seemingly innocuous activity - just like anyone actually buying music, offers the opportunity to set up a significant means of anonymously sharing data.

        I'm not saying that it'll be a huge problem, nor that the devices will be insecure enough to boot from an external dr

  • Common already... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Hallje ( 239067 ) on Sunday October 24, 2004 @10:50PM (#10617736)
    Can somone say $hit or get off the pot? Geeebus, as if people don't take long enough at the phone booth.

    • Re:Common already... (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Can somone say $hit or get off the pot? Geeebus, as if people don't take long enough at the phone booth.

      When was the last time you even saw someone at the phone booth? When was the last time you saw a phone booth? Part of the reason I gave up and got a mobile phone again is because I can't find a damn phone booth when I need one.
      • When was the last time you even saw someone at the phone booth?
        no more phone booths in nyc more like phone stalls. phone booths just get pissed in. The phone stalls get pissed in too. Its all really pretty disgusting, between the strangers mouths and ears that have been touching the phone and the urinal factor.... yet they still get tons and tons of use and abuse.
      • I have to use them because I don't see the point in having a cell phone. In fact during the summer, I was trying to get ahold of some friends because the pub we were going to meet at was overrun with visiting football (soccer) fans, so we had to go somewhere else. I ended up running into one at the corner phone trying to leave a message, and he was going to use the phone to see if his girlfriend had gotten home yet.
    • Yea it is not a good plan. I can't see waiting 1/2 an hour because someboby is downloading Porter Wangners greastest hits, when I need to call a towtruck.

    • Re:Common already... (Score:5, Informative)

      by MrNemesis ( 587188 ) on Monday October 25, 2004 @12:33AM (#10618187) Homepage Journal
      Perhaps you're not familiar with the newer UK phone booths.

      What with the huge uptake in mobiles over the last 5 years, phone boxes have become rather redundant neglected by the vast majority of the indiginous population, and BT have been reinventing them in order that they remain profitable.

      As such, many of the phones in large cities and towns are DSL-enabled and have little embedded web kiosks that you use to browse the web using your change, phone or credit card on a pay-as-you-go basis. Never used one myself, but I can't imagine it'd take long to download some DRM-encrusted WMA offof some dedicated service. The only problem would be enabling the phone boxes with USB and firewire connections.
    • Hey man, I'm just trying to get the latest BT through BT!

  • Super (Score:2, Insightful)

    by mboverload ( 657893 )
    Now I can get 16 kbps quality music for 10 cents a minute and 2 bucks a song.

  • Interesting idea but financially inviable (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Raul654 ( 453029 ) on Sunday October 24, 2004 @10:54PM (#10617753) Homepage
    Think about it - they are tergetting a niche market (Ipod owners) with an even nichier product (downloading songs on the road). And, to top it off, how often will a given person do it? Maybe once or twice, for that one time you are own the road and need a particular song. Otherwise, you'd get most of your music at home. I mean, they are losing money with telephone calls (where you might actually get repeat customers), and that doesn't even require them to pay for a high speed connection. No, I suspect this project is doomed already.
    • The phone boxes may already be using VOIP, contain sufficient CPU power, and USB host support might be a no brainer. These phone boxes may already contain a small PC.
      TFA also says they will start with their information kiosks which already have net access.
      This may be an obvious next step, and a simple software change (though I agree, it seems pointless)
    • No, I suspect this project is doomed already.

      Nobody mentioned the music industry thinks their product is gold plated.. The phone company isn't going to get the content for free.. Far from it. By the time the phone company tries to make a profit, it'll be ignored on the street the same way CD's are now for being so overpriced.

      If the phone company were smart, they would offer a product that didn't take all the income so they could earn some. Getting a big markup on songs isn't a good idea if the resultin
    • Exactly. What would be a better app would be this:

      As it is, most new MP3 players nolonger require drivers to hook up to a host, as they identify themselves as 'USB Mass Storage Devices". So as long as you have a USB port, regardless of weather it's XP, MAC or Linux, all you have to go is plug it in and there you go..

      So now imagine if MP3 player makers could add just a bit more firmware and made those players identify eachother. With a cheap $1 USB male -> Female adaptor, you could connect 2 players tog
    • they are tergetting a niche market (Ipod owners)

      Er, no they aren't. The set of people with any kind of digital music player is rather larger.

      They aren't losing money on telephone calls, they are losing money on having the hardware standing around not earning money, so anything they can do with little or no more hardware which drags in a few more users will probably be a small win.

      Not that I think this is going to be very profitable. Mostly I expect this is just an advertising press release, designed t

  • Practical (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FiReaNGeL ( 312636 ) <`moc.liamtoh' `ta' `l3gnaerif'> on Sunday October 24, 2004 @10:55PM (#10617756) Homepage
    Cause its so more practical to load music at a phonebooth, in public, than in the comfort of your home. I don't see the point here, honestly. An Ipod hold so much music that you'll always have something non-boring to listen to anyway.

    • Re:Practical (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Triv ( 181010 )
      how about putting kiosks in a mall? I mean, you're probably their to shop anyway, and it's a helluva lot more convenient that buying a cd, bringing it home, ripping it and uploading it to your 'pod.

      I realize that apple doesn't make such a thing easy with the way the iPod's updating works, I'm just saying a booth like this isn't TOTALLY impractical.

      Triv

    • Re:Practical (Score:3, Funny)

      by Rie Beam ( 632299 )
      "Cause its so more practical to load music at a phonebooth, in public, than in the comfort of your home."

      I guess you could pay for your song in quarters...that is, unless the song was recorded outside of your area code...
      • I guess you could pay for your song in quarters...

        No way - just whip out your MCI phone card and deduct the cost before downloading.
        You have 68 songs remaining...press the star key to add more song downloads using your credit card"
    • Agreed -- this is another one of those tech companies snowing clueless investors out of millions of dollars by describing ways technology can make life even more inconvenient. What's even more amazing is that they're pushing this idea in the UK, a country where the weather is not conducive to standing around loading files onto a music player. Whoever is investing in this scam must have no clue of what an mp3 is, or how much easier it is to just do this in a nice warm house as opposed to a cold, wet London s
    • Knowing BT it will be cheaper just to walk into a shop and buy the CD.

  • How Do They Plan To Support All Players? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FlipmodePlaya ( 719010 ) on Sunday October 24, 2004 @10:56PM (#10617765) Journal
    "Under the plans, anyone owning an iPod or portable music player would be able to go into a phonebox and download a song while out shopping or on a lunch break."

    Well, just about every player has a different method of song transfer. Many require databases to be constructed, and there are so many obscure models out there... Most don't have Line-Ins to record off of, so what are they going to do?
    • If i were doing it, i'd get the file to buffer in the phone (hard drive or ram) and then set it up to automatically transfer it to any removable storage medium that's plugged into the phone. This would mean either the phone has a hardened usb cable attached, or you have to carry one around, with the added negative of only working on players that actually mount as a USB storage device.

      That's the sensible way to do it, but still not good enough to be effective and easy.

      Or they could have a plug in memory ca
  • ... face up to facts and do away with phone boxes. They could use the money that they save to launch some satellites and give us all 1Gb worth of free bandwidth each.

  • demand? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by discontinuity ( 792010 ) on Sunday October 24, 2004 @10:59PM (#10617776)

    Can't say that I speak for everyone, but I really can't imagine using this service. How often do you find yourself walking down the street thinking "man, I'd pay anything just to listen to some Moby right now"?

    And it's not so much the cost. Who wants to stand there, navigate a bunch of menus and wait for a download just for a 3-minute song?

    Maybe I'd pay for general internet access, but I can do that at a coffee shop. If I'm tired of what I've got on my iPod, I can always listen to the radio. The concept just doesn't seem to fill a desire.

    • I almost certainly would not use this service, since I have broadband at home. I can, however, see that this would be useful to modem users. Downloading an album from iTMS or wherever over a modem takes an hour or so, and ties up the 'phone line while you are doing it. Being able to pop into a 'phone box and download a couple of albums would be a far better solution.

  • Downloading music seems a little narrow. If they can provide the infrastructure for that, why not make them into more general network access points? Since phone booths are so prone to being vandalized, it probably won't work to provide a computer, but they could provide ports to which people could plug in their laptops, PDAs, etc. as well as devices like iPods. Maybe a wireless access point too.

    • They already provide web and email access. This is just another service added on top. I don't imagine that wired network access in 'phone boxes would be popular, since it would result in them being tied up by one person for a long time (and they're not exactly comfortable places to use a computer). Wireless access might be feasible, since the set-up cost is small, although I doubt that pay-for-use access points are commercially viable in the long term - too many places are offering free WiFi access to an
  • ...that guy out of star wars, every time you think they're dead they just seem to come back stronger than before.
  • a beep in the song every minute reminding me to put in 2 quarters?
  • I can see it now

    2600 Autumn 2004 Edition
    NEW MP3 Phone Box CENTERFOLD POSTER INSIDE!!!

    (In case you didn't know 2600 (aka the Hacker's Quarterly obsesses about every type of telephone box))
  • but with all the viruii, and fake viruii announcements from fedora-redhat.com, can you really trust a box left out in the open? I'd think it'd be a ripe offer for tampering. I can just image the 2600 articles now...

    CB*($@#

  • I’ve actually RTFA (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Pan T. Hose ( 707794 ) on Sunday October 24, 2004 @11:03PM (#10617800) Homepage Journal
    Kudos for the time-travel-was-only-phase-1 dept. for writing a story that made me actually RTFA, because even after reading it few times in a row I didn't understand a single thing. Now, when I have RTFA and know what are we talking about, I have an idea. Why cannot they install CD-R burners and CD/booklet printers in booths of some sort to allow buying the same music as a customly composed CD having only to reload it with CD-Rs, paper and ink once in a while, while making every single song ever recorded available in the most convenient way imaginable and for relatively low cost and minimal overhead?

  • See a concert, take it home on your iPod. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Suburbanpride ( 755823 ) on Sunday October 24, 2004 @11:04PM (#10617810)
    On their recent tour, the Pixies offered CDs of the show recorded and mized live to fans walking out the door. I could see a kiosk at concert venues allowing fans to downlaod the night's show to their iPod. It would proably be faster than burning CDs. A phone both however, is not something I currently associate with music, and I don't thing it would catch on, but i buy most of my CD's at concerts, where I know the money is going to the artist. Apple is going to realse a U2 special edition iPod next week, and is rumored to be working on A sub $200 flash player. How long till digital complete overtakes cd's?
    • On their recent tour, the Pixies offered CDs of the show recorded and mized live to fans walking out the door.
      A minor nit to pick: most likely it was ClearChannel, not the Pixies, offering (and profiting from) the CD. IIRC, ClearChannel even went so far as to patent the process of recording a concert and selling the CDs immediately afterwards. Of course I'm not saying you shouldn't buy the CD if you liked the show!
      • The fact that ClearChannel can own any patents whatsoever is proof that the patent system is in desperate need of reform. ClearChannel does no innovative research of a scientific nature; they are purely a marketing firm. Anything technical that can be patented in AM/FM radio has already been patented, and concert venue management is not science. This being said, I'm sure there is an easy workaround for ClearChannel's recording patent unless the patent is broad to the point of being unenforceable.
    • Apple is going to realse a U2 special edition iPod next week

      Perfect for putting these [negativland.com] MP3s on. Or these ones [negativland.com], which will suit any non-RIAA approved device.

  • It is about price point... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by nayigeta ( 792068 ) on Sunday October 24, 2004 @11:10PM (#10617840) Homepage Journal
    At the end of the day - it is about price point, if it is technically feasible in the first place - like waiting time to download, and comparable to rival method to download music.

    Up take for niche services like these requires very low entry requirements - like low price, little registration hazzles, ultra convenient - in order to gain momentum.

    And btw, if wireless internet over cellular ever gets realistically cheap - it should just kill off this phonebooth music downloading idea easily.

  • Wrong Target Audience (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dedeman ( 726830 ) <dedeman1&yahoo,com> on Sunday October 24, 2004 @11:29PM (#10617918)
    This sounds to me as thought they are trying to create a market where one will just not exist. What idealist idea makers need to realize that not every haribrined idea with buzzwords like "MP3" "internet" "wireless" and "download" should be given some sort of press release and targeted at kids/gadget hipsters with too much time and money.

    From the product offering it sounds like the idea was given life from a bunch of yes men, and not things like demographic surveys and similar technologies that are currently in place.

    I'm not suggesting stifiling innovation, but to me, this sounds like a sales pitch that will prove worthless in the long run, and come to think of it, in the short run. People just don't need instant gradification under every circumstance. Imagine that, Mr. marketer.
    • The target audience for this is people who have a digital music player but not broadband. Typically, this kind of person will have bought their player to store all of their CDs on. Downloading music from the Internet at home is too slow to be much use, but buying it in a 'phone box saves them the step of ripping the CD when they get home. Broadband is still not universal in the UK, particularly in rural areas.

  • Dr Who (Score:5, Funny)

    by guard952 ( 768434 ) on Sunday October 24, 2004 @11:31PM (#10617927)

    How about being able to download old episodes of Dr Who from a phone booth... how cool would that be?

    Other possible things to dispense from a phone booth:

    • Phone Chargers
    • Prepaid Mobile Phone Credit
    • Ringtones
    • Forget that stuff, I would rather have phone booths dispense things like:
      • Rum
      • Marlboros
      • Fried Chicken
      • Baby Oil
      • Bratwurst
      • Ski Masks
      • Roller Skates
      • Spermicide
    • You should be able to purchase these using your mobile phone, and the charger, thats a good idea :), but its gotta have an outlet.
    • How about being able to download old episodes of Dr Who from a phone booth...

      Dr Who had a police box, not a phone box. Presumably phone box would sell you the Superman theme, and possibly allow you to order lycra body stickings and underwear online for really quick delivery.

      Anyway, around here the police boxes have all turned into coffee kiosks. I'm not sure what test to run to find out if this is real or if they have fixed the chameleon circuits.

  • They had something like this in Hong Kong Since 2002. And it shows how slow the west is.

  • Silly idea (Score:4, Insightful)

    by syousef ( 465911 ) on Sunday October 24, 2004 @11:33PM (#10617938) Journal
    Phone booths are for making phone calls. I don't want to download mp3s, read my email, or order takeout from my public phone. For starters I'd like to be able to make calls. With mobiles so prevalent public phone boths are being scrapped and falling into disrepair everywhere. There aren't many places in my local area I can even make a public phone call from a booth anymore.

    What advantage does public phone mp3 offer over at home internet access? If you're on the road there are Internet cafes everywhere already - many of them with 24 hr acces - and provided they'll let you hook into their computer you're all set.

    I'd be more excited about wireless broadband downloads on a small mp3 player like the ipod. All you'd need is the wireless modem built in, plus a simple interface to have a music store in your pocket. THAT would be more worthwhile.

    Phone booth mp3 downloads are old .com bomb thinking all over again. "I know. Lets put in lots of infrastructure for a small return and wonder why the share price doesn't continue to skyrocket while our losses mount."
    • Sorry I mean buy takeout. I might well want to use a public phone to order takeout, but it doesn't need to be a vending machine.
    • Phone booths are for making phone calls. I don't want to download mp3s, read my email, or order takeout from my public phone.

      I'm with you, but there's a problem with pay phones only being able to make phone calls. They cost money to maintain, and aren't being used as much as they once were. I can never seem to find one near when I want one, as I don't have a cell phone. If there were more reasons to go deposit money at the same location, like you can do some high-speed casual roving internet activity, th

  • Has existed for ~10 years already (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Thai-Pan ( 414112 ) on Sunday October 24, 2004 @11:50PM (#10618005) Journal
    When the original MPMan came out in Korea, these little booths popped up close to 10 years ago. I think it succeeded over there, but I don't see it being a big enough market on this side of the ocean.
    • I think it succeeded over there, but I don't see it being a big enough market on this side of the ocean.


      Where copyright is disregarded openly, offering access to content can be profitable.

      On the other side of the ocean where royalties have to be paid on content, the resulting price either sucks off all the profit or raises the price to the point you don't have enough volume to make a profit.

      This is what is preventing $0.25 cent downloads of music from legal sites.

      It's the cost of the content. Otherwis
  • Shouldn't be making these things any more useful. Publically available land lines for voice communication should be outlawed. If everyone were required to talk over wireless, the government (specifically the NSA) could do a better job at tracking down terrorists that are scouting around our country, using public phones to report their progress. There would no longer be a need for cooperation from the obstructionist telephone companies. Powerful satelites would be able to pluck everything from the air.

  • Real Networks (Score:2, Insightful)

    by FreeHeel ( 620639 )
    "a leading provider of digital music content"

    iPod compatible? Sounds like Real Networks to me. But I still don't know how they will get the music into your iPod catalog w/o iTunes integration, which Apple is unlikely to give up...

  • Perhaps the lauded benefits of eCommunication are just beginning to be felt

    Well, finally.

    Now I just can't wait to see these supposed places where millions of people anywhere in the world can share information and ideas.
  • I don't quite understand how iPod downloads would work given Apple's DRM.

  • Yeah (Score:3, Funny)

    by cubicledrone ( 681598 ) on Monday October 25, 2004 @12:29AM (#10618161)
    The .com bubble has come and gone, but the great ideas and implementations are starting to come through thick and fast now.

    And look! Everyone's still unemployed! The entire fucking economy is using computers, and the average technically-intelligent person has about as much chance of finding a job in technology that lasts longer than five weeks as they do of pulling a Faberge egg out of their ass.

  • WiFi Phoneboxes (Score:2, Interesting)

    by newandyh-r ( 724533 )
    BT already has quite a lot of WiFi-enabled phone boxes using the "Streetzone" label within their "Openzone" brand.

    Would be quite useful, except for the fact that most of them are positioned in locations that have nowhere within range suitable for sitting with a laptop ... and especially no nearby car parking spaces.

    • Good to see a comment like this, finally. I was coming in here to mention that Verizon gives free 802.11 access throughout New York City to their existing DSL customers. WTF would someone want to plug their iPod into a public phone just to download MP3s? Unlike your complaint, however, I see people sitting on benches and low walls all the time near hotspot payphones. You can spot the booths because they have an antenna the size of a hockey puck on top (and they have "Verizon High Speed Enabled" written in h
  • Well, I hope it supports the Mac iPods because plugging them into Wndows reformats them.
    That would piss off... well not that many people, but still. I wonder how they're goi~g to integrate the new" music with the databases of existing music.
    Are BT going to have to take iTunes apart in order to get it to talk?

    Personally, I think this is an absolute crap idea. I'd be extremely surprised if it ever takes off and manages to provide an adequate level of service.

  • What I want is this:

    * A mobile phone that can play mp3-files and that have memory to store at least ten songs
    * A mobile phone service provider where I can pay a fixed amount of money each month for "unlimited" bandwith

    That way I could download songs into my mobile phone from my server at home, where I have my whole mp3-collection. I think we are almost there but I know of now mobile phone operators that have this kind of deal. Yet.

  • eek. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by sandman_eh ( 620148 )
    And how long befor some enterprising hack , fixes the phone box so that it always downloads Malware into your ipod ?
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • The reason I think this will work is that music is an impulse buy. The newest British phone boxes already have a big (17") colour screen, fast net access, and the guts of a PC, so all the extra hardware this will need is a USB socket (which makes sense if they want business users to move files around anyway). The revenue model is very nice for BT, they might make *something* on the bandwidth, but make a lot more selling advertising on that colour screen that's already there for internet access.

    If a kid is

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