Samsung readies rival digital music service to iTunes
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Gearing up to compete with MS' Zune too IFA 06 Samsung is to take the digital music fight to Apple by launching its own song download service in the UK, France and Germany, the South Korean giant revealed today. Details of the service remain scarce, but we can say it will be operated by digital music distributor MusicNet, which also powers Virgin Digital, HMV, Yahoo!, iMesh and others.â¦
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Amazon.com Inc &lt;AMZN.O&gt; launched an early version of its highly anticipated digital music download store, which is seen as a potential rival to Apple Inc's &lt;AAPL.O&gt; dominant iTunes system.
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(InfoWorld) - Even before Apple's much anticipatedÂ iPhone hits the shelves later this month, users of many different kinds of phones can listen to their iTunes music, via a new service from Seattle company Melodeo. Anyone can use the beta version of NuTsie, launched on Tuesday, by signing up and then exporting their iTunes playlists to NuTsie. Users don't actually upload their music files, only the metadata of the files which identifies the songs. After receiving an application via text message to their phones, they can start listening to their playlists. On the backend, Melodeo is assembling a library of music so it can stream the songs to users. When a user chooses to listen to music from their playlist, Melodeo streams it from its own library. The company adheres to "radio rules," the same guidelines that govern how broadcast radio and online stations play music and then pay artists and record companies for the right to play the songs. Because Melodeo follows radio rules, NuTsie has a few quirks. For instance, users can't pick individual songs from their libraries, they can only listen to their playlists. Also, playlists don't play in the order that the user made them -- NuTsie shuffles the order. If a user's playlist includes a full album, Melodeo must insert random songs into its playback in order to comply with the rules. For now, NuTsie supports 15 phones, although the Java application may work on other phones. Melodeo is developing a Brew version and a Windows Mobile client. Most users will want to subscribe to an unlimited data plan from their mobile operator before using the service, otherwise the cost to stream the music could be high. Melodeo is recommending that users have third generation service, even though the stream uses just 24Kbps, in order to get a high quality service, said Dave Dederer, vice president of music content at Melodeo. So far, Melodeo has a library of 500,000 songs, and is adding around 10,000 songs every couple days, he said. That means that some songs users might have from iTunes, which has a library 5 million strong, might not play. The service shouldn't anger Apple and that wasn't Melodeo's intent, Dederer said. "People have invested time and energy into their libraries and we're trying to embrace and extend that universe," he said. "It's an extension of the value you're already getting out of the iTunes universe." There's another plus to the service. "We monetize music that's illegally stored in an iTunes library," said Dederer, who is himself a songwriter, record label owner and member of the band The Presidents of the United States of America. That's because when NuTsie streams a song from a playlist that a user may have illegally downloaded, Melodeo pays the artist and record company for streaming the song. Melodeo hopes to launch NuTsie commercially in six to eight weeks and hopes to also soon launch with a carrier partner that could decide to offer a subscription to the service. The company hasn't yet decided how to charge for the service. It could offer it via a monthly subscription or with a one time fee for downloading the application. Melodeo is also looking into visual and audio advertising so that users could access it for free, Dederer said.
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Amazon.com Inc launched an early  version of its highly anticipated digital music download store,  which is seen as a potential rival to Apple Inc&#39;s dominant  iTunes system.
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Upcoming service will make songs in your iTunes library accessible on your mobile phone.
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Microsoft today unveiled details of its highly anticipated Zune media player in the latest bid to rival Apple's iTunes/iPod combination.
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Best Buy,Â in cooperation with SanDisk and RealNetworks, is the latest company to join the growing list of competitors to Apple Computer's iTunes music service.
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Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday it has developed a more advanced flash memory chip that will allow increased data storage in digital products such as music players.
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Users of HD Radio devices will soon be able to 'tag' songs they hear for later purchase using iTunes.
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Best Buy Co. Inc. on Thursday said it  will introduce a new music service with digital music player  maker SanDisk Corp.  and music software company  RealNetworks Inc.  to create the latest competing  service to Apple's iPod and iTunes combination.
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Microsoft makes its long-anticipated entry into the online music market today, marking the first serious challenge to Apple Computer's popular iTunes service.
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The online retail giant finally unveils its long-awaited music store. In a double punch to Apple, it's DRM-free--and cheaper.
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Amazon.com Inc  on Tuesday  launched an early version of its highly anticipated digital  music download store, which is seen as a potential rival to  Apple Inc's  dominant iTunes service.
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BT is launching a digital music service designed to &quot;revolutionise&quot; the industry and give power back to artists, labels and traditional retailers at the expense of new entrants into the market such as Apple&#39;s iTunes.
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Even before Apple Inc.&#39;s much anticipated iPhone hits the shelves later this month, users of many different kinds of phones can listen to their iTunes music, via a new service from Seattle company Melodeo Inc.
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Nice curves, but does it have anything worthwhile inside the casing? Review "Refined, Stylish, Classy, Sleek" - are all words that have gone to describe Samsung's latest offering to the digital audio player world... mostly by the Seoul-based manufacturer. So, after all that hype is there anything besides aesthetics to drive sales of the Samsung K3 in this Apple iPod dominated market? Read on...â¦
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Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.   005930.KS on Friday said it plans to introduce a line of   digital music players and a download service, under an   agreement with privately held media provider MusicNet.