Record Labels Fear Virgin’s Piracy Solution
Written by Ernesto on September 09, 2009In order to combat piracy the UK Internet provider Virgin Media has has teamed up with Universal to offer their customers unlimited DRM-free music at a fixed monthly rate. However, as with every innovative music service, some major labels fear that Virgin’s all you can eat plan will cannibalize their existing digital sales.
The Internet, MP3 players and file-sharing services have changed the music habits of an entire generation. Instead of buying a few singles or albums each year, consumers now demand unlimited access to music, without restrictions such as DRM.
In an attempt to fulfill this need and to convert illegal file-sharers into paying customers, the UK ISP Virgin Media recently announced that it will offer an unlimited music download service to all their subscribers. Such a service would allow customers to download all the music they want and keep it permanently.
Universal and several smaller labels are backing Virgin’s plan, but not all the major labels are as happy. NMA reports that insiders at EMI and Sony Music don’t think that Virgin’s unlimited download service will convert illegal music downloaders into legitimate customers. They say that the model is flawed and will hurt existing digital sales.
“We want to work with Virgin Media as a partner but any deal has to sit comfortably with how we value our assets against how it values its customers,” an EMI insider said. “We have to evaluate each deal as it comes in and make sure we’re happy with the overall value of the proposition.”
An insider at Universal doesn’t think that the worries expressed by EMI and Sony Music are justified, as customers with unlimited access will only download a few dozen tracks per month. On the other hand he stressed that it is vital for the labels to innovate and compete with piracy.
Virgin Media meanwhile is undeterred by the rift between the different labels and will go full steam ahead. They hope to release their unlimited music download service by the end of the year. “We’re forging new ground and want to provide a truly compelling offering for consumers and industry,” a Virgin Media spokeswoman said.
Previously: Anti-Piracy Group Objects To Friend of the Court Application
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93 Responses
so an ulimited ammount of music, just not anything Sony or EMI produced. sounds limited to me.
This is a BIG step in the right direction. Lets just see how much they will actually charge for this first before we judge too much. I for one am happy to pay for music minus the DRM, but as long as I have a way to listen to it first.
crap not good enough
oh,and let me add as well that this would be a major plus if other labels jumped on this and saw it for what it is. Not a solution to ‘File Sharing’ but a solution to the level of theft committed by these labels by shoveling us with DRM music that we cant even burn to CD to listen to in the car.
@ #3, just wait and see how this pans out. Virgin has a huge say in the industry, and if this proves successful (which I am sure it has a high chance of doing so), then others may take notice.
In an ideal world, seeing the artist get something more like 50 – 70% of all revenue is ideal, but this is a start, and that battle can be fought when the time is right.
This is just virgin trying to cash in on their policy of restricting file sharers!
Yeah, i’ve already got something kinda like this already. Except it’s across all labels and film/game/book/software publishers.
Oh and it’s free.
Well nice idea and would consider it depending on price. But as not all labels are going along with it then the “unlimeted” is not true at all !! I’ll stick to my way of getting ANY kind of music i want for free. I send money to artist of music i feel deserves it…
@7
I’m not sure where ‘free’ comes into the equation…It costs me $100/month in LEGiT costs for my warez. And yes, I think that taxing P2P at the iSP level is a step in the right direction unless you like $1.92m law suits and data caps..I know Canadians do :P
will they offer FLAC?
My ISP already allows unlimited download of all the music in their digital music store, which is quite extensive. It’s part of my broadband subscription fee. They introduced it out of the blue and at no extra cost. We still pay the same for our broadband connection.
The only catch is that it’s DRM’ed. But the DRM can be easily removed with programs like Tunebite or soundtaxi.
The result … Since they made that possible I haven’t downloaded a single piece of music from anywhere else. Just some food for thought.
So when this comes to light what is stopping someone within the Virgin network from setting up a proxy open to a private/public group for unlimited music download?
Resistance is futile!
@10 – Probably not. And that’s why it won’t please as many people as they’d like; everyone wants their own format. I prefer lossless WMA audio files, but I doubt many others do. But honestly, this isn’t about the audiophiles – it’s about the masses. If even 5/10 music sharers convert to this, then it should placate the labels sufficiently to have them join.
@#9 EPiPH0N3
You spend 1200 dollars each year on WAREZ….?
errr.. :rolleyes lol. nm
@EPiPH0N3,
full time troll/shill or just starting out?
(or perhaps you wrote your comment in jest?)
Like #2 said: it is a BIG step to right direction. Currently as Virgin customer i would gladly pay a small fee for unlimited DRM free download.
If i can download all music from one place hassle free and not worrying about any legal issues, then why not, it’s perfect.
Right now other labels are bitching but after they will see how successful this kind of deal can be, they will all want “pice of the pie” also.
But i am not shure if others would like to drop the DRM. It’s useless as a “security”, it is annoying to the customers but those idiots still hold on to it like it would save them from piracy.
even if i lived in the uk i still wouldnt be a part of this program.
i will not pay one more dollar to anyone for anything while i can get it for free…sorry big 4 and kopyright kartels but im not your customer or your target audience.
Thanks to the scene releasing quality rips of music I wouldn’t otherwise have known or heard about; I now spend a lot money on vinyl each month.
I try before I buy.
For all those saying how they love the idea of this service i say its rubbish.the main data usage for p2p is for movies and tv shows and this does not cover that.also the main reason given for poracy is availability in terms of release dates!why wait 6weeks for district 9 in the uk?
This is the very basic of steps and is only offered so virgin can make money from the pirates it now intends to prosecute/assist prosecuters!
lol…
what would that fee be? Like €50??
or 100?
Why would an artist want this?
Will this be like an subscription for a year?
this is flawed
As long as there’s NO DRM, and I can choose between FLAC, AAC and MP3, I’m sold! :)
…it is a step in the right direction.
@21:
If it is 50/year that would be a pretty good deal for the average person to no longer have to worry about being sued at any given point while at the same time allowing them to still enjoy their share of music.
As for why an artist would want it, Eminem said it best, though I’m paraphrasing because its been a long time since I heard it: “Download my album. I only make 5 cents off of it. But go see me in concert with the money you save.”
It’s a good idea, certainly. I will keep an eye on this. I’m not with Virgin though. They should offer it to everyone, not just Virgin customers. If they get all of the major labels on board and offer the service at a reasonable price, genuinely with no DRM whatsoever, this could be very effective and the labels might see that our way is better and more profitable than the outdated model that they are clawing at.
how do I smell 128kbps cbr mp3 only..
Good job, Virgin; drag them – kicking and screaming, if necessary – into the 21st century.
Now they start to talk LoL
I’m very much against levies that are not optional, if it is, I still wouldn’t like it but I can live with it and the main reason is that once a levy is imposed the people loose the control over the price of that levy and have no where to go and the industry has no incentive to produce anything good. So no levies without an opt-out option are just dumb.
But if it is an option why not, there are many people who would pay it just to have peace of mind or as was said before it opens the doors to services provided at the ISP level that could come as options in the contracts before you sign, and I really don’t have nothing against that kind of thing, and the thing being people trying new models and not forcing them down your throat :)
This is actually a good business model. And here’s why.
1. It respects our freedoms – once you buy music, it is actually yours to share – it lacks DRM and you can copy it around as much as you want and share it with your friends.
2. It does not sell files – it sells a service. A service in this case is categorizing music, making it simple to find and bringing new music in time. Sometimes these digital stores would have exclusive singles, etc. Which isn’t bad at all. Some people would pay for a clear well designed site with a good search engine, plus they know that it is legal.
If it plays out well, this business model is definitely a step in the right direction. It would’ve been a better idea like 10 years ago, though.
im willing to bet it will be around £10 – £15 per month, and it will be in 64kbps aac or 192kbps mp3 only. the fact im paying £600 per year to these anyway they should chuck it in for free.
This is exactly what we should have, if the cost is right the other labels will follow suit.
I bought the unlimited download deal with Magnatune.com. I can download anything I want from their catalog at any time in any of their formats including FLAC for lossless copies. I can also legally share tracks with others.
So Virgin isn’t competing well here: you can’t get the widest variety of audio file formats (just lossy ones which invariably sound bad) and you can’t legally share what you get with anyone.
Magnatune lets everyone sample their complete catalog online in lossy formats including the high-quality and patent-unencumbered Ogg Vorbis format. You can use a variety of players (their website, Rhythmbox, Amarok, or various proprietary programs). You can listen to their catalog of unedited tracks all day long at no charge. You can use Magnatune’s API to make your own programs or integrate Magnatune tracks into other software.
Virgin doesn’t offer anything like that.
Virgin is only “forging new ground” relative to what they did before. When one considers what has been out there for years, Virgin has a long way to go to offer serious competition.
@14 – You’re an idiot. Lossless is lossless. If they were to offer FLAC then you could simply convert it to lossless WMA in a few seconds and vice versa. Why? Because again, LOSSLESS IS LOSSLESS.
In reference to the topic, I think I’d have to side with Sony on this one. In reality the threat of facing any concequences for downloading music or anything else from a P2P network is in reality very small. Sure people get busted, but the amount of people getting busted in relation to those that don’t is huge. I seriously doubt that anyone who now downloads music illegally will suddenly decide to start paying just to avoid what little chance there is of getting caught. What will happen is that the people who currently DON’T download music illegally WILL sign up for this service and like Sony said, what digital sales they do have will quickly vanish.
The only advantage I see to this is that it MIGHT be easier to dig up songs or albums that are hard to come by on P2P networks (which is pretty rare).
I, like others, wonder what format/bitrate the files will be. I’m guessing MP3 @ 256Kbps or MAYBE 320. I seriously doubt they’d offer any lossless formats. Which is sad really. Back in the days of Napster and the late 90’s when everyone was on dial-up I could understand a compressed music format. But these days, for anyone to be selling (or even sharing) low quality compressed music files is ridiculous. But let’s face it, most people are technologically stupid or just too lazy to figure out that they can take a lossless file and turn it into an MP3 in a few clicks. At the same time, I’m sure the companies selling digital music in lossy formats are licking their chops knowing that they can just resell the same music to people over and over again in a slightly higher bitrate. Either that or they know that if and when they do start selling completely lossless music their sales of physical CD’s will completely tank. Because let’s face it, people just ain’t gonna pay as much for a file full of data as they would for an actual physical CD.
That’s my 2 pennies.
“…as customers with unlimited access will only download a few dozen tracks per month…”
LOL i for one, download alot more than ‘a few dozen tracks’ a month.. i’d say i download a few dozen albums a month depending on what i see/like/want. I have 1.2TB of music currently ranging from individual tracks right through to full albums from the 60’s 70’s 80’s 90’s and beyond. I’ve shifted more to the album/disog downloads the last couple years than individual tracks. As it stands i have over 40000 DRM-free, crystal clear mp3s and that number is growing at a rapid rate each week!. Another 1TB drive here i come! So… obviously the people at universal need to expand their estimates on how many songs people download. I think they are just being nieve in suggesting such a small amount of downloads are consumed on music per person.
On a side note, it’d be interesting to see what Virgin UK charges for the service.
/rant
# 32 J.B. Nicholson-Owens
You are right it may be not the most perfect but Virgin is just making their first steps into right direction. Give it some time, if the customers love it, Virgin is happy and Universal is not complaining then it will evolve. Also if will prove useful for everyone then others will follow, i am pretty sure about it.
I’m waiting for a service like this that all labels endorse. I would be willing to pay about $7.99 a month for such service that offered all music and all music videos in HD format and a digital lossless format that is DRM free.
I’m honest enough to delete my library of their music if I quit using the service, I just don’t want to deal with the DRM bullshit that limits the players and technology I use, as I tend to use very customized technology for myself that may or may not be comparable with their control mechanisms.
What these corporations have to realize that us responsible people of the digital age can be trusted to honor our word and the spirit of fair and reasonable capitalism.
They also have to realize that as the internet grows they will have to compete more and more with everyone else to bring attention and loyal consumers to their products, they can either listen to those of us who are reasonable or we will find something else to occupy our time and go elsewhere leaving them high and dry.
Check out my blog at http://www.surveyseeker if you want too. I’m writing some good content right now about all sorts of things.
Basically it is inevitable evolution of ISPs. I mean that Internet connections themselves are fast enough already and prices are pretty low. I pay pay 20$ per month and have 4MB/s download speeds and right now am thinking to switch to other ISP to have something like 8-12MB/s for 24$ per month. I don’t think there is any space to compete in terms of speed/price here. So they now combine tv/phone/internet to one service but even that will become standard soon.
So questions is rather “What’s next?” and next is additional services like exclusive content TV channels use. I think we will see alike selling points more and more from ISPs as they will be looking new grounds to compete for a customer on.
As for not so bad of a deal. If they will have types of music I want, if quality will not be that bad(average is fine by me), and they will evolve the system as in to some social networking experience then I think that would be a good move. Problem is tough that I listen a lot of different music from all around the world (Anime soundtracks, film/tv shows soundtracks, local and abroad stuff) which are usually impossible to find in one place. So in the end I fear that it will be not as interesting as only some limited range of music will be available there and it is still not enough to compete with P2P.
quote “will hurt existing digital sales.” this is exactly what the whole copyright ‘war’ is about. the money. even when a sensible solution is being offered, there is still opposition from the music labels. for god’s sake embrace the internet and new technology! you are going to be making more than you have in the past and definitely more than your fair share! try getting rid of the stupid old farts that are running the companies and replace them with people that have some forward vision!
When it gets to a stage where isp’s have the oney to by the likes of emi things might change, but until then they will fight to protect their phony baloney jobs!
When it gets to a stage where isp’s have the money to by the likes of emi things might change, but until then they will fight to protect their phony baloney jobs!
What will happen is that instead of “a few dozen tracks” many people would download thousands of tracks and keep filling their disks.
Then, they would realize their folly and perhaps introduce something like ‘FAIR USAGE POLICY’ and limit the so-called ‘unlimited’ downloads. Or raise charges….
@15
No….I pay $100/month in LEGiT costs(iSP/Dedi/Netflix/Usenet). You get internet axxs and storage for free??? Good for you!
@16
I’m a full time asshole….My comments where directed at the silly cheap canadians @ P2Pnet ;)
If you guys aren’t willing to play the game and just float these people a couple bucks/month because the money isn’t gonna go where you want it well then as I said have fun with thise lawsuits and ACTA.
how stupid are they? Didn’t the labels even ask for this originally?
quote: “but not all the major labels are as happy”
now they can sue each other ;)
Well, first off, I have to say: Baby steps. I mean, hey, at least it’s moving in the right direction instead of back into the stoneage with them trying to put us all on the rack for 2hrs per downloaded song.
Secondly, Mangatunes is all well and good, but their selection is very limited; especially as they don’t work with ANY labels. So you don’t have content from bigger artists at all.
My fear with all this is as follows: Even if successful, is each label going to end up with their own ’store’? While $10 a month may be acceptable for unlimited downloads, when it becomes $10/m to Virgin, $10/m to EMI, $10/m to Sony, $10/m to Warner.. suddenly you’re paying $40/m for your ‘unlimited songs’… which is way too pricey.
This hurt… That hurts… Record labels should just close down for fuck sake.
Actually, I’d love to see one of the ‘We’re going to release on the net’ artists like NIN and Radiohead go ahead and sign up with Manga. I think that might inspire other bigger artists to give it a look and it could go from there.
If they offer flac, I’m in.
flac rofl stop dreaming… 128 mp3’s most likely
I would go for this. Once again virgin innovates.
To some of you, I believe the ‘Unlimited’ Part, means unlimited amounts of music, not all the artists there… Also I like this idea, although depending on the price, depends if I will go for it or not.
I believe that most illegal file sharing people, have at the back of their mind, the worry that they will be caught at some time, and won’t mind paying a small fee to stop that happening, instead if the ridiculous fees in court.
People will use this, only if the price is right though.
id only be happy if i knew that the subscription fee was going towards the artists themselves. until this happens, i will torrent until all the record companies are run into the ground
The “industry” might as well shut up and get in line…this IS the new business model. Steve Jobs was SOOO ahead of the curve (as usual).
The entertainment industry knows this, they just want to hang on to their bloated profits at our expense for as long as possible. What they are afraid of is now they will have plenty of competition and will actually have to produce something of value for our money.
OH SH!T A SENSIBLE WORKABLE SOLUTION PEOPLE MIGHT ACTUALLY LIKE AND USE LEGALLY, QUICK, STOMP IT OUT, NEUTER IT AND ADD DEFICIENT FEATURES AND DEFINITELY, DEFINITELY LIMIT THE AVAILABLE CONTENT SO HARD IT WON’T MAKE ANY SENSE! STOP THEM, QUIIIIICKKKKkkkkkkkk…
OH NOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS, THERE GOES OUR JUSTIFICATION FOR OUR RAEPLAWSUITS HAAAALP!
“What these corporations have to realize that us responsible people of the digital age can be trusted to honor our word and the spirit of fair and reasonable capitalism.”
This would be a very difficult thing considering that “fair” and “reasonable” are the 2 concepts that have been lost in a modern circus, referred to as capitalism, for a LONG TIME!
I really think that this is the way forward, only without the labels.
Will they never learn. The point is not to compete with piracy, but take away the need for piracy.
Piracy will always exist, especially with irrational laws that prohibits more then they allow for the common consumer.
However, for the general consumer there’s not much of point keeping copies of content if they got access to it by streaming in any way form and shape they per the situation want. ‘Hardcopies’ will still be bought by the collectors, the fans, and the nostalgic. Not much point in copying the ‘hardcopies’ if everyone has easy legal access to em anyway.
I mean, common, just look at Star Trek the original series ffs. Even though its gone complete circle numerous times, telly, re-run, crappy vcr copy, new vhs copy, the LD edition, d-vhs, dvd, re-runs on the telly in digital format even HD, and now legal and illegal digital streams….
Out it pops on the Blu-Ray format, and people go completely wohooo-mental. Take a friggin’ hint.
If this service can offer obscure foreign music, a variety of format choices and bitrates and no DRM then they would have me!
Until that happens, though, I will stick with what I’ve got.
this would work for me if i was in uk–
IF it was the ARTISTS using virgin’s distribution service, and NOT the corporations.
also, the technology of bittorrent still doesn’t seem to be anywhere near their small brains.
The only problem I see with their business model is they believe “customers with unlimited access will only download a few dozen tracks per month”. I would download entire discographies…
Looks like there is no pleasing the MAFIAA…
Apparently they are more content with their current role as the “victim” so they can continue destroying people’s lives over the chump-change they’re supposedly missing out on.
I don’t know if that was a typo, but the article lists Virgin Media as an ISP. AFAIK they’re not an isp. But this gave me a thought.
If an ISP, say, Comcast for example, were to offer unlimited music downloads and just added the subscription cost to my monthly bill, I’d be on that like stink on s**t.
But then again, I’m a stupid pothead, so I’m subject to delusions of grandeur at times.
“We have to evaluate each deal as it comes in and make sure we’re happy with the overall value of the proposition.”
Translation: “We need to keep making lots of money. If no, we dont like it. Better if we can also keep suing people.”
HERE it comes boys n girls get ready for the RIAA wars
where the industry with $$$$$ in there eyes and you as meat on there plate starts to fight over the scraps tossed at the floor
GO GO GO FIGHT AND DIE
Sony can always eat shit.
A decade late, but no problem. Go Virgin !
My vote is for a single lossless format as well, which is all that is really needed. It doesn’t matter which format so long as they’ve been created properly. The great thing about having your tunes in a lossless format is that it’s just like owning the original CD. So long as you never delete the originals, you’re free to create a second set in any format and bitrate you want (I keep FLAC files on my PC and use Vorbis for my portable player for example). Converting lossless to lossless or lossless to lossy is safe, while lossy to lossy and lossy to lossless is bad and should always be avoided at all costs. I too do not have high hopes they will actually ever use a lossless format, but there really isn’t a good reason not to when you think about today’s bandwidth as well as their plan. After all the idea seems to be download once, pay forever.
Whether the method they ultimately choose is worthwhile or not I cannot guess. I do think it is a good idea though. The entertainment industry isn’t going to win the copyright war by simply maintaining the status quo. At least this way Universal will be making some profit from downloaders while at the same time putting pressure on the other corporations (music and ISP’s both) to adapt in order to stay competitive. After all, isn’t that what we pirates have been saying they need to do all along, adapt?
@36:
“I’m honest enough to delete my library of their music if I quit using the service”
No offense meant, but that’s not being honest – that being stupid. You have paid for that – why in the world should you delete anything?
@32:
This Magnatune.com site is actually not a good one since they point out that if you share music with more than 3 of your friends, you should feel guilty. So if you have 4 best friends, they would like you to feel guilty for not ruining a relationship with your friend and actually giving him a copy.
It takes a lot of effort and time to change how the public thinks about this or that – collective mind is very slow to change. Copying files should be considered legitimate, legal and ethical. This site, unfortunately, asks you to consider file copying a bad thing which they give you permission to do 3 times or else they label you a person who did something shameful.
I wouldn’t use a service which treats me as a bad person because I happen to value my friends more than their licenses.
#42 (EPiPH0N3) said: “I’m a full time asshole….My comments where directed at the silly cheap canadians @ P2Pnet”
Have something against p2pnet and Canadians? FWIW I pay $45 per month for my ADSL and don’t subscribe to any online services. The only sad thing about it is the reason my ISP doesn’t need to throttle traffic using DPI; their upload speeds suck! Still it is better than Shaw whom I hate with a passion and does use DPI. Thankfully it will all change soon as my ISP is planning to invest in fiber.
#58 (Zoness) said: “If this service can offer obscure foreign music, a variety of format choices and bitrates and no DRM then they would have me!”
Why bother with a bunch of different formats and bitrates when only one is needed? Letting the downloaders covert high quality lossless files to a format and bitrate of their own choosing makes the most sense to me. Since there is no DRM it shouldn’t be an issue and probably requires less storage overall on the part of Virgin/Universal. Likely less of a headache for them to maintain as well. Whatever maximizes profits is the route they’ll most likely take if their like… um, smart. /rolleyes
“The proposed monthly pricing structure of the new Virgin Media downloads service has not been revealed. But the company is thought to be looking at charging at a level roughly the cost of purchasing “a couple of albums a month”. This would put a monthly subscription at about £15.”
“An insider at Universal doesn’t think that the worries expressed by EMI and Sony Music are justified, as customers with unlimited access will only download a few dozen tracks per month”
ummmmm when they specify UNLIMITED… that means ALOT more that a few dozen tracks/month (i would try it for £15/month but im gonna stop downloading when my 1T hdd is full) … doing it for the lulz >:)
yeah, big good step!
“it is vital for the labels to innovate and compete with piracy.”
thats just what we ask for, isn’t it ?
and lets hope this hurts the sony bastards..
OOOOH GODFREY UR PANTS ARE SO BROWN !!
Knowing Virgin Media…
Loyal customers will probably have to pay £20 per month and new customers, £5 for 3 months, then £10 thereafter.
Virgin always treat their most loyal customers like crap!
Not only do they have disdain for their most loyal customers but they shipped many jobs overseas.
Knowing Virgin Media…
I think I’ll opt for the non-virgin solution to obtain my music and it means I can miss out the mainstream cheesy trash that isn’t worth listening to and subsequently promoting, anyway.
Money well saved! ;]
Sounds good. They should have the content instantly streamable like Spotify with the option to download what you like as having to download everything from the start, particulary for content you only want to sample, is a tedious and wasteful process.
Best of luck to them. A good thing is if they get greedy and stupid, then people can simply fall back to unauthorised means. :-*
What we need to do now is start choosing the music licenses, if it is not liberal you should not listen to it :)
Jamendo is a great start to get rid of ridiculous licenses.
one of the people on guardian got right
“Can I have that in FLAC please…. or do I still need to be a pirate to get decent quality round here?”
so?
Why not forget setting up these all you can eat services and just offer a music license. For a small monthly fee, you can use any existing channel to download anything you see fit, but the license fee paid gets split amongst the labels. if necessary they could request that license payers use a scobbling service to report on what tracks have been listened to in order to divvy up the royalties generated. this would also provide them with great statistics as to what people actually like.
A decade and a half too late, but way to go !
If the price is right and Universal is committed to this fixed rate service, then they’ve found a new gold mine to exploit.
The others are just too jealous and greedy to offer DRM free music at a flat rate.
if it is not too much, and the quality is actually good, I would pay for it.
Nice that at least some record labels do not try the “control”-attempt.
finally a step in the right direction.
Like most say here its a step in the right direction.
There’s an unlimited supply
That’s why there is no reason why
I tell you it was all a frame
They only did it ‘cos of fame
Who?
E.M.I.
Too many people had the suss
Too many people support us
An unlimited amount
Too many outlets in and out
Who?
EMI goodbye
Sir and friends are crucified
A day they wished that we had died
We are an addition
We are ruled by-none, never
And you thought that we were faking
That we were all just money making
You do not believe we’re for real
Or you would lose your cheap appeal?
Why don’t judge a book just by the cover
Unless you cover just another
And blind acceptance is a sign
of stupid fools who stand in line
Like EMI
Unlimited edition
With an unlimited supply
That was the only reason
We all had to say goodbye
Unlimited supply
EMI
And there is no reason why
EMI
I tell you if was all a frame
EMI
They only did it ‘cos of fame
EMI
And I do not need the pressure
EMI
I can’t stand the useless fools
EMI
Unlimited supply
EMI
Hallo EMI
EMI
Goodbye A & M
– Rotten, Johnny; Jones, Steve; Matlock, Glen; Cook, Paul;
“According to a later account by Jones, both he and Cook played on instruments they had stolen.”
January 1977: EMI drops The Sex Pistols
March 1977: A & M drops The Sex Pistols
May 1977: The Sex Pistols signed with Virgin Records
My ISP offers a plan like this and it only costs 0.90€/kk more than the normal plan with same speed.
Where’s the torrent of all those albums? ;)
I’m surprised at you. Obviously the “I pay $100 a month for my warez” comment was not trolling, just an acknowledgment that computers, electricity, ISP service, and one’s time actually cost money. So, unless someone is buying you a free computer, paying your utilities and ISP bills, perhaps you should lighten up. It’s not 100% free to download and until free computers, electricity, and internet service is handed out for free, it never will be.
@ 42 EPiPH0N3
@ 86 Lighten up, ezee,se
But paying $1200 a year to download copyright material via Newsgroups/Usenet etc is stupid. Your still in breach of copyright -and you can still get caught.
It is NOT legit
The fee wont come cheap though, bet it will be £25 + a month for low bit rate mp3’s
Okay, it is said often enough. The music and movie companies really need to update their business models and obtain a clearer understanding of how people want to acquire digital content in this day and age, in 2009.
The appeal of P2P tends to outweigh a lot of the negative risks that are attached to such a protocol as bit torrent and the use of it. People know this, understand this and consequently exploit this. People love P2P because of how readily the majority of content is available to them and how quickly it can be obtained. An example, its 18:00 and you want the new, Killers album for argument sake. Depending on the connection you have, it is a safe bet that by 18:10 you have that album on your hard drive, in a format that isn’t restricted in any way. That’s the appeal. Yes it is a form of online theft in as much as if you went into a shop, you would pay for a physical copy of the same item, but i just wanted to generally emphasise the appeal of P2P.
This is what the entertainment sector needs to realise and ultimately utilise in such a way so that they can obtain revenue from this kind of service that an ISP could provide their costumers.
Virgin Media come up with the right idea, going in the right direction and essentially doing their bit as a responsible ISP to try and find an ‘appealing’ alternative to P2P and the doubts from the big cheeses come steadily flowing in. Not like i am that surprised as this always seems to happen when someone comes up with a positive idea to help resolve an ongoing and complicated issue, in this case, unauthorised file sharing.
It does all come down to money for the entertainment sector and not the ‘much publicised’ issue of new artists struggling to make it in the music industry. It obviously comes down to the money because for the longest time the sector have been throwing figures at us pertaining to ’supposed’ lost revenue due to the prevelance of P2P filesharing and have been banging down the doors of governments to introduce new legislations which would deter people from using P2P and yet when an idea is placed before them to help curb the number of people who engage in this activity, they suddenly decide after all that the issue of filesharing isn’t that important to them when it goes head to head with the issue of lost commercial and financial gain.
Yes, people would consume all they could for their monthly subscription fee but, lets admit it, who wouldn’t? It was even initially announced by Virgin Media to be an ‘All You Can Eat’ service.
I would happily pay £15 per month to obtain music via an unlimited service such as this from VM. I am a customer of VM and applaud the forethought they have shown their actions to help deter people from using P2P applications as a way of obtaining digital music.
The bigger issue to me is the point i made at the top of this post. The entertainment sector need to start realising that people want digital content when they want it and make money from music and film this way by supporting services which encourage people to turn away from P2P whilst not limiting their options of what content they want to obtain online. Shifting gears to movies for a minute; people don’t like to be told anymore when they can see a film and where they have to go to see it if it is available on the internet already. Yes, a pre release of a movie on the internet will only arrive there via dubious circumstances but this is essentially the message that the P2P faithful are trying to get across. To the entertainment sector it just appears like those people are a bunch of ‘freeloaders who think nothing has a value anymore if it is available online and therefore they can just take it’. It runs deeper than this. To me, people who use P2P also are saying “This is the modern age, this is 2009, we can do almost everything online these days and so why can’t we see the films we want and listen to the music we want when we want to?”
Its a case of the big companies still wanting to control what you see and hear when they give you permission to and the fact that the entertainment sector are rapidly losing grip on maintaining these age old ways of distributing content in this digital era, they are starting to be more aggressive in their attempts to ’stomp out’
unauthorised file sharing.
I read something afew months ago which has stuck in my mind ever since. “When you have millions of people ‘breaking the law’ it is the law that obviously needs changing, not the people” I agree with this as i find it hard to believe there are millions of thieves roaming the internet. Instead you have millions of disgruntled people who actually live in the modern age and feel that companies really need to use the internet more wisely to sell their product in this age.
I strongly agree that the creators of the products we enjoy so much should be paid for their work and i for one would welcome a service like the one that is being proposed as it will give revenue to those creators but in reality, until all the bodies and companies agree to such a service and the same in the future with film companies, i can’t see a way that illegal filesharing is going to be stopped, without turning all the fans of music and film against those very people who are creating them. If that happened, the suffered financial loss i believe would be a great deal larger than it is now due to online filesharing.
What makes me laugh is that even some musicians are hitting out at the government and record companies regarding their attempts to stem online filesharing. These are the very people who would be victims of illicit filesharing and yet they are on the side of the file sharer themselves? That speaks volumes to me.
Virgin Media = double thumbs up for the initiative
Entertainment sector companies who are against this proposed service from Virgin Media = make up your minds and either embrace this kind of change or face losing more revenue as a result of filesharing.
Thanks for reading
Dave
UK
@86 / 87
I’m always LiT either by bud or hash..And my costs are more like $150/Month after thinking about it. All the money I pay are for LEGALL services and it’s up to me what I do with that service. I didn;t say that P2P is legit but taxing it would give it a ’sense’ of legallity(sp?) that would be hard to challenge in a court of law. They would make their profit..I would get my media…it’s a win-win situation.
Richard Branson is a hero!!!
Anyway, as a commenter pointed out, TV shows are the most interesting thing for many, while the record labels are the ones, spearheaded with RIAA, that make the most noise about their rights being violated.
I think everyone should have access to all music ever made. It’s our culture. It belongs to us. Must not be controlled by evil corporations! This should be a basic human right…
“crap not good enough”
You need better crap?
“how do I smell 128kbps cbr mp3 only”
I can smell that too. I won’t be on board with anything like this unless it is CD quality.
Virgin rarely fail on anything they must have studied this carefully in order to make the investment , I think this is the future we are seeing but the price has to be very low or people will not take it up,
Now this same sort of thing needs to be done with movies the cinema is old technology 40’s 50’s 60’s era, the future is unstoppable technology marches forward at a ever increasing pace , sooner than people think every thing will be done via the internet you can watch TV, listen to Music, talk to friends , buy your shopping, order your clothes,study from home, work from home, and so on and so on, already.
Sign up for a month.
Get all you can.
Share!!!!111
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