Microsoft To Begin Subscription Based Music Service?

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Microsoft have recently broken off licensing talks with the four global music companies which has made analysts wonder whether the software giant plans to offer a subscription based music service.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that talks broke down due to high royalty rates sought by EMI, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony BMG.

Microsoft haven't announced a subscription based music plan but have long been considering such a move according to industry analysts.

Recent reports cited from unknown sources pitted Microsoft in talks with Time Warner's AOL Service which has a music subscription plan.

View: Microsoft Corp

View: MSN Music

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(6 replies) #1 Snollygoster on 04 Oct 2005 - 11:25

I don't think that's possible... What if I pay my monthly fee and download 1.000.000 songs?

#1.1 Zolk on 04 Oct 2005 - 12:17

It's possible... Yahoo and Napster already offer subscription services. Problem is as soon as you don't pay your montly fee the 1,000,000 songs you downloaded no longer work.

#1.2 leesmithg on 04 Oct 2005 - 13:53

So for arguments sake you download 10,000 mp3's, then you feel your subscription is not worth it anymore, how will these mp3's stop working if you cancel your subs.

Do you need a special player, or have to activate them to play them on-line or something?

Excuse my ignorance as I rip to hd my own music cd's I buy so not in-line with downloading mp3's I have paid for.

#1.3 sphbecker on 04 Oct 2005 - 14:36

No music store lets you download MP3s, they would be DRM protected WMA files. Microsoft's DRM allows the content provider to set a temporary license which needs to be renewed after a set date. Once that date passed then you would need an active subscription to renew. You don't need a special player for the service, but like all music stores you need a player that supports the DRM technology used by the store.

Most players today do support WMA and DRM. Go to http://www.playsforsure.com/ for a list of players that will work (not a complete list, but its a pretty good one). That site does not list software players, but most media player programs for Windows support DRM as well.

#1.4 kravex on 04 Oct 2005 - 15:37

The only way round it would be if the DRM allowed you to copy them to a music CD, if so you could rip them back as MP3's after you cancelled your subscription.

#1.5 _LeviatHeN_ on 04 Oct 2005 - 17:19

huh,it wont cause microsoft working for much money..

#1.6 sphbecker on 04 Oct 2005 - 17:54

There are different options on DRM. I don't think a subscription based service would allow you to burn to a CD, because the CD would never expire. However, you can always do the Line-Out to Line-In trick. If you BUY a song from MSN or one of the others they DO allow you to burn CDs.

#2 kitchenutensils on 04 Oct 2005 - 16:00

^ doesn't one of those Russian mp3 download sites support mp3? they dont have a copyright law that applies in Russia, so they are still legal over here

(3 replies) #3 ThePDW on 04 Oct 2005 - 17:16

Ya know, this subscription based music model is junk. Anyone with a basic knowledge of sound software can re-record the music onto their computer

#3.1 sphbecker on 04 Oct 2005 - 17:56

You are assuming that everyone is out to break the law and steal content. Yes, you will always find a way to cheat if you really want to. The harder they make it the less likely it will be for people to do it. Rerecording significantly lowers quality, takes a long time and requires a lot of manual intervention.

#3.2 ThePDW on 04 Oct 2005 - 21:39

Just for the sake of argument, re-recording doesn't have to degrade quality

#3.3 sphbecker on 05 Oct 2005 - 01:11

I guess that is true, but... Anytime you re-encode media you loose quality unless you are going to a RAW or lossless format (which would make it take many times more space then the original). Also, if you are recording using the Line-in on your sound card then you are converting the music to an analog format and digitizing it, which add A LOT of noise.

#4 djnathanb on 04 Oct 2005 - 21:09

QUOTE

Recent reports cited from unknown sources

post something like this on the forum and you risk haveing your thread closed

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