MySpace Digital Music Service Is DRM-Free 93
Anti-Globalism sends word that MySpace flipped the switch on its online, ad-supported, DRM-free music service that will "... give its roughly 120 million users free access to hundreds of thousands of songs from the world's largest recording labels. Unlike much of the material at Apple's iTunes store, the music sold through MySpace's new service won't contain the protections that limit how many times a track can be copied. MySpace is hoping to set itself apart from iTunes even further by allowing its users to create an unlimited number of playlists containing up to 100 songs apiece, a sharing concept similar to music services already offered by Imeem and Last.fm."
neat (Score:4, Interesting)
Now for an easy way to get to a catalogue using XML so we can do machine-to-machine catalogue matching to download whatever we're still missing.
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download whatever we're still missing.
If MySpace's downloadable music selection is like their present variety of artist pages then there's nothing to see there, move along(unless you like Britney Spears and Ja Rule).
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While i agree Ja Rule is horrible, painfull shit not even worthy to call noise, let alone music, there's plenty of good bands up there too, including thousands of Indie bands
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I personally don't care that I never own the music- I consume music at a rate that wouldn't be affordable at purchase price.
With Rhapsody it's not about one or the other... (Score:1)
OT: Submitter links to Nazi website (Score:1, Informative)
I'll just leave this here
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=955999&cid=24911097
DRM... MySpace... DRM... MySpace (Score:5, Funny)
Tough choice.
Are you kidding? (Score:2)
I'm not poor -- $.99 to download DRM-encrusted whatever to my iPod is easy. MySpace could, quite possibly, kill me. This is not a tough choice.
MySpace? (Score:2, Redundant)
I didn't know it still existed.
Free, eh? (Score:2)
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Can I open this music up in Audacity and cut a sample out of it? No.
Can I convert it to another format for my music player? No.
Is it DRM free? No.
Is this a bunch of misleading bullshit? Yes, yes it is.
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The portion of the "service" where they link to Amazon music for downloading is the real DRM free music.
MySpace.com: We're still relavent! (Score:5, Funny)
Don't go to Facebook because it's better and doesn't have nearly as many in your face annoying ads! Come back! See, easy pirate music!
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For the average Myspace user... yes.
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Slowly becoming the WalMart of the Internet (Score:2, Funny)
Bad summary (Score:4, Informative)
Myspace doesn't sell anything. If you want to buy a song you have to purchase it from Amazon through the link provided. Otherwise you use Myspace's music player.
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Myspace doesn't sell anything. If you want to buy a song you have to purchase it from Amazon through the link provided. Otherwise you use Myspace's music player.
That is what makes this a "new music service" from MySpace. It's also what makes this story "news." Good summary. Have a biscuit.
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or you could use Fire Fox's download helper to rip any song directly from the band's myspace page.
Or getmsmp3 [sourceforge.net], which has apparently been abandoned.... Notice reads:
Sorry everyone, but MySpace has its own special music interests now, and this
program can't play nice with their new business model. It's going to be hard
enough for them to be profitable without some script out there that can grab
content without watching ads. So getmsmp3 is officially abandoned. Sorry!
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So the title should say, "Myspace finally integrates their crappy mp3 streamer into the rest of their site by copying imeem" .... After all, the purchasing from Amazon thing isn't new... there was a site called amazon.com where you could do this directly without using myspace at all. Don't know if it still exists though ....
What a confusing article (Score:5, Informative)
Which is it? Again, FTFA:
Sound like the track copying limit is "zero", since it appears you can only play it with a custom player in a browser.
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Agreed. I still cannot tell if it is ad-supported, or paid subscription, or pay per song.
But more importantly, why can this streaming business model work, and yet Pandora is bleeding from legal fees?
Re:What a confusing article (Score:5, Informative)
Pandora doesn't shove advertising down their viewer's throats. Also, pandora has a ton more listeners
Additionally, Myspace has yet to put this out there, and has yet to put prices out there. Just wait to see how much they charge and then people will start talking. Remember that if it's anything more than apple's 99cents it will be thrown aside as uncompetitive.
Also, since people are purchasing the songs on the same site they listen on, I suspect myspace some kind of way to weasel out of getting charged for the fees (they're not legal fees btw), that Pandora is being charged.
Lastly, Pandora doesn't sell the music themselves. They sell it through others.
Re:What a confusing article (Score:5, Informative)
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So it's not actually DRM free.
The Amazon store, the only way to buy music from Myspace, is DRM-free, but I don't see how this is worth a headline since Amazon's store is nothing new. The only new component is terrible ad-supported DRM-laden streaming content.
Wow, so much good news. (Score:1)
yay! (Score:1, Interesting)
Yay! DRM free! I think half of slashdot would have an orgasm if this were not linked to ads or myspace.
But again, this is great news to 0.01% of the population that feels boxed in by iTunes DRM ...
Read For Content (Score:2)
Yay! DRM free! I think half of slashdot would have an orgasm if this were not linked to ads or myspace.
Well, maybe, but only if it was actually DRM-free, because it isn't.
Misleading (Score:5, Informative)
The catch: the music can be played only on personal computers connected to the Internet and listeners have to tolerate advertising splashed across the screen.
So it sounds like MySpace has made a listening service that allows you to listen to music, but probably has something resembling DRM to keep you from keeping it, listening to it offline, or putting it on portable players.
If you actually want to *buy* the music and keep it without DRM, it shuffles you off to Amazon. Amazon, of course, offers a pretty good DRM-free MP3 store.
Unlike much of the material at Apple's iTunes store, the music sold through MySpace's new service won't contain the protections that limit how many times a track can be copied.
Which is kind of misunderstanding the issue. iTunes doesn't control how many times a track can be copied, but rather how many devices are authorized to play it. But anyway...
MySpace appears to be in a better position to take on iTunes because its site has always emphasized music.
Weird comments like this are peppered throughout the article. Sounds like someone has beef. The author of the article (like the author of the summary) seem hellbent on painting this as an iTunes killer. However:
Despite its musical bent, MySpace isn't positioning its service as an iTunes killer. "We see this as more of a complement to what Apple is doing and create even more demand for digital music devices,"
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So it sounds like MySpace has made a listening service that allows you to listen to music, but probably has something resembling DRM to keep you from keeping it, listening to it offline, or putting it on portable players.
If I can hear it, I can copy it. It may not have the same bitrate or clarity, but it's still able to be copied. No amount of coding wizardry can prevent this.
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Well by that logic, there is no such thing as DRM.
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By that logic, there is no such thing as *effective* DRM. And there isn't.
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Welcome to reality.
DRM can always be subverted. The moment you start to stream out, you can _always_ redirect the bitstream from the audio device to a local file.
In the worst case, you lo-jack it and just redirect your headphone jack to your mic jack. Simple enough if you're willing to take the hit on re-encoding. In the best case, you fake an audio device in software and deposit the unencoded pile wherever you want.
Even if you aren't a code wizard, DRM is not an obstacle to freedom. All it is, is a PIT
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I was saying that it sounded like they were using some kind of DRM and Hyppy sounded like he was disagreeing by saying, "That doesn't matter, because I can still get it one way or the other."
So I was just trying to say that, if that's disagreeing with what I'm saying, then DRM isn't a concern at all (which I don't think is true).
If you think DRM is a concern at all, than Hyppy's post isn't very relevant.
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That assumes that the intended target is "pirates". With all the DRM and "product activation" out there, those things have only ever been successful at 2 things:
At this point, I'm running under the assumption that those are the things these companies intend to stop with their DRM.
Whatever you call it, it's still not DRM free... (Score:2)
DRM is not an obstacle to freedom. All it is, is a PITA and a disingenuous way to lock in people who don't have the code-fu to put the music
Whether that's true or not, that's got nothing to do with the fact that this allegedly DRM-free service is not actually DRM-free. It doesn't matter whether you consider DRM an obstacle, an annoyance, a fad, or a communist plot. Their service includes a technical mechanism to control the playback of the music by the consumer, and that is what "digital rights management"
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Well yes, but saying that is rather missing the point. Most people don't want to connect the microphone and speaker sockets on their computer, or position a microphone in front of the speakers, or even watch their network traffic to look for the original file. They want a button they can press when they hear a song they like that lets them save it on their computer to play it whenever they want. And they are willing to pay for that - as long as it's cheap and easy. Since amazon is easy for most people (beca
Existing services (Score:1)
So how will this differ from existing music stream services such as Deezer and Jiwa.fm?
Both offer free on-demand music streams online for quite a while now. Am I missing something here?
DRM-free? (Score:5, Insightful)
"You can only play the song in our custom application" seems about as restrictive of DRM as you get. How would this possibly be considered to be DRM-free? I also fail to see how this would eliminate limitations on copying, it seems they're attempting to set that limit at exactly zero. (Like all DRM, that will be circumvented, but that doesn't mean there isn't any.)
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The same way Stardock considers their software DRM free. They allow you to install it and copy it as many times as they want... but it still needs their activation software in order to do it. So I'm assuming that DRM software ceases to be called DRM software the moment you can use it as many times as you want (or until the company goes out of business... whichever comes first.)
I still can't figure out how this music and Stardock's method is still legally called DRM free.
Nobody's called them on it? (Score:2)
The same way Stardock considers their software DRM free.
I guess nobody has taken them to court over false advertising yet.
Once I can ... (Score:2)
... buy music, download it to my unencumbered computer system using open source software I compiled myself, play it directly using open source software I compiled myself, or transfer it to my portable player (and have it play there) using open source software I compiled myself ... then it's truly DRM free.
I don't want the ads. I am willing to pay for music. I'm even willing to pay the greedy fat cat businessmen a part of that for their effort at spewing other junk music all over the TV and radio. But it
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So far my favorite distribution arrangement was from NIN for Ghosts. Getting that in flac format was realy nice.
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I don't understand why they need a special downloader? Firefox, Konqueror, Lynx, Opera, should all be just fine for downloading.
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... buy music, download it to my unencumbered computer system using open source software I compiled myself, play it directly using open source software I compiled myself, or transfer it to my portable player (and have it play there) using open source software I compiled myself ... then it's truly DRM free.
Does Amazon's store not count? I guess not, because they have a client for downloading albums, but I thought at least singles could be downloaded using only a web browser. But this "MySpace service" is actually just pointing you to Amazon.
I don't know. I still use iTunes. The client doesn't have open source, but as long as you stick to their "iTunes Plus" selection, the files themselves are completely DRM-free. I've not yet been in the situation where something I wanted to buy was unavailable in iTun
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You know, except for downloading it to my portable player (an iPod, actually) using open source software, I can do all of this now. (And, before anyone points out whatever piece of open source would let m
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Yes, they're starting to have some services which will sell you an unencumbered MP3. But, go buy a real, physical CD. You can turn that into unencumbered MP3 all you like.
Then I'd have to put the CD drive back in my computer. And I'd have to take a hard drive out to do that, or buy a USB CD drive. I don't have to do any of these things with Magnatune [magnatune.com], which lets me simply do normal downloads in the browser of the music in raw, flac, ogg, or mp3 formats.
Oh, in case you are wondering how I might do a system rescue without a CD drive? I have USB ports for USB sticks, and slots for CF and SDHC cards connected via USB, all bootable. 16GB of flash can hold a lot of rescue soft
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Thanks for the Magnitude link! =) Looks like a promising site that Slashdotter-type-music lovers would appreciate.
Do what you want with "commercial" music (Score:5, Informative)
...but leave indie artists alone please. Myspace, IMHO anyway, is much more important to the music community because of its ability to allow non-commercial, non-signed artists to put their music and group information out there for everyone to see. The big labels have their own mechanism, and Myspace catering to this with DRM-free music is awesome - but please, don't let it affect the indie artists. Keep it where it is, because it works!
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Too bad MySpace is so poorly designed and that so many of the pages are horrific messes.
But hey - if indie artists want to use a social network equivalent of a state university dorm to promote themselves, that's fine. They'll probably stay indie artists for quite a while with that tactic.
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"...if indie artists want to use a social network equivalent of a state university dorm to promote themselves, that's fine. They'll probably stay indie artists for quite a while with that tactic."
---
Who ever said signing with a major label is the goal of every non-signed artist? I would *prefer* to be unsigned/on a small label instead of under some rapist-like major label contract.
Not every musician is in it for the money, friend. The crap artists you hear on major playlists are, but I wouldn't call 80% of
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Most indie artists can get on boutique sites for their specific genre and get promoted just fine.
Hell, there were even artists that got discovered on Soulseek and they actually put a label together just for them.
MySpace + SNOCAP has always been a joke (I've personally dealt with SNOCAP in the past, and actually had to drop them because they were so unbelievably bass ackwards). MySpace + Amazon = a really bad joke.
Me? I'd rather put up my user profile and put the Beatport [beatport.com] player on there instead of the SNO
Royalties? (Score:2)
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To be fair, Pandora has been doing an awful job of pairing music by sound. I put in Type O Negative in the artists search and they start playing the Beatles? Or Pantera matching with Green Day? It doesn't make sense. I was so excited by the idea of putting in my favorite music and hearing new similar sound...and then I used it.
At least get it right... (Score:3, Funny)
This person obviously never used iTunes. Not that I think it is perfect but they are making it out like Apple chose to enforce copy protection. Why does everyone forget the label's forced it?
Even so they got the tech side wrong. If you are going to bash something at least learn how it really works and what the real limitations and problems are, and include a few other services for comparison.
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They did choose to enforce copy protection. They don't have to make a music store with copy protection, the trade off though is that the big record companies might not sell their music on it.
Additionally, if Amazon can sell so much music without copy protection, why can't Apple do so now?
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By requiring DRM, the music companies basically handed Apple a monopoly on music, because the iPod was an overwhelmingly popular device and the store and the devices began reinforcing each other in the market.
When the music folks subsequently tried to get Apple to create a differential pricing scheme, they suddenly found out that Apple had all of the power. Apple called the bluff when the companies threate
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My comments were solely in regards to the parent comment.
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It was only after public opinion started to turn against DRM that Apple insisted it had never been in favour.
Wrong on every point. (Score:2)
It meant iTunes users were locked into iPods
Funny, I was using iTunes with my flash-based music player three years before the iPod Shuffle came out.
What makes it hard to use iTunes with non-iPods is that most non-iPods don't support AAC, the MP4 audio codec that was supposed to replace MP3. Instead they support WMA, because Microsoft has been pushing their proprietary format over the open one that Apple adopted.
and iPod users were locked into iTunes
Most of my tracks aren't from the iTunes [Music] Store.
It w
iTunes doesn't "limit how many times" you can copy (Score:4, Informative)
iTunes doesn't do this. You can burn to CD or copy any iTunes track unlimited times.
iTunes does restrict playlists to ten CD burns, but copying the contents to another playlist resets the counter. The summary is poorly informed.
Re:iTunes doesn't "limit how many times" you can c (Score:2)
Just because there's a (trivial) workaround, doesn't mean there isn't a limit.
iTunes Info Wrong (Score:1)
MySpace is hoping to set itself apart from iTunes even further by allowing its users to create an unlimited number of playlists containing up to 100 songs apiece
I have iTunes and I've got a number of playlists with over 100 songs, though I've not tried the "unlimited number of playlists" feature just yet...
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Every time I see one of these articles I think "iTunes, or the iTunes Music Store".
They're very different animals, and ultimately do very different things. The music store has some restrictions (because there's no way in hell the labels would have allowed it), but the actual iTunes software imposes no such limitations.
Cheers
Only 96kbit Audio (Score:3, Informative)
Myspace's on demand audio is encoded at a somewhat crap quality of 96kbit/sec
imeem is 33% better with 128kbit audio
MySpace: *MY* creative work (Score:1)
If it's *my* music (I composed, arranged, performed and recorded it, and reserve all rights to it), I consider the placement of "DRM" or any other restrictions on distribution to be an infringement of my copyright.
I am anxiously awaiting a RIAA suit that names as its property, someone's property who is not represented by the RIAA. (To make that clear, I would like for this to be the error that ends the establishment of the RIAA, sending its members into bankruptcy and dissolution due to the fines that foll
No Radiohead or any Independent artists, though (Score:3, Interesting)
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agreed. this even made it into the national papers here in the Uk somehow.
As usual, big companies make pacts to keep the indies crushed in the sidelines.
Too bad that... (Score:1)
The marketer's dilemma (Score:2)
Customers hate, loathe and despise DRM. The customer knows there's a DRM and they're not bloody happy. What's a marketer to do? Lie.
I look forward to them trying this one in the UK [rocknerd.co.uk] - there's Trading Standards [tradingstandards.gov.uk] to contend with if they do.
Not for me (Score:1)
MyPirateBay (Score:4, Funny)
How does this affect MyPirateBay again?
More choices is good, but... (Score:1)
Label Artists - New Niggers (Score:1)