The French mobile carrier Orange has announced the launch of Musique Max, a desktop and mobile music download store. The service has music from the Big 4 labels plus independents, "with an emphasis on French artists."
Musique Max will be a subscription based store, but there will be a limited amount of songs you can download per month. For €12 a month, users are allowed to download up to 500 songs. If you want more, each track will cost an additional 99 euro cents.
Making the service unique, and very intriguing, is the fact that the songs never "expire" even after your monthly subscription is up. Any song you've downloaded is yours to keep, whether you cancel the service or not.
The only catch however, is that the songs, at least for the time being, are DRM-riddled Windows Media files. Orange had hoped to open a DRM-free store, but it appears the labels would not allow it. The songs can be played on a maximum of 5 PCs and 5 portable devices but notably the songs are locked out of the dominant market leader, the iPod which cannot play locked WMAs.
Making the service unique, and very intriguing, is the fact that the songs never "expire" even after your monthly subscription is up. Any song you've downloaded is yours to keep, whether you cancel the service or not.
The only catch however, is that the songs, at least for the time being, are DRM-riddled Windows Media files. Orange had hoped to open a DRM-free store, but it appears the labels would not allow it. The songs can be played on a maximum of 5 PCs and 5 portable devices but notably the songs are locked out of the dominant market leader, the iPod which cannot play locked WMAs.
