James Delahunty
2 Apr 2008 0:12
Denmark's biggest ISP, TDC, is to offer a music download service along with its Internet broadband packages. The songs which can be downloaded by customers are restricted by Digital Rights Management (DRM) and would cease working 30 days after a user leaves the ISP. Some figures in the music industry had expressed fears of unlimited music download (or bundle) services that might be open to exploitation.
"You can't have a subscription model where somebody on a monthly model of say $10, goes on in January, downloads six million tracks, and leaves in February," IFPI chairman John Kennedy said earlier this year. The music industry has shunned several similar services in the past, like Tiscali's Jukebox on-demand Streaming service that used technology from "P2P radio" startup Mercora.
EMI, Warner and Sony BMG will participate in TDC's new "Play" service, but Universal Music Group tends to go its own way. Whether or not the service will be successful depends on what its target really is. If its included in the price of the broadband services, then its target is probably music sharing on its networks. However, with the DRM restrictions, customers who already take part in file sharing may opt to continue with the familiar and less restrictive method, whereas "Play" could be more popular with new users.