New free music service hits problems following launch
475866
QTRAX, a new free, ad-funded Internet music service that launched with a big fanfare Sunday at the influential MIDEM music market seems to have rapidly hit a series of false notes.
537052
At least one online music service without digital rights management restrictions is launching.
124340
A company that many expected never to make it to launch has opened up offering 770,000 songs
765865
A Web site that offers free streamed music from top artists said he's determined to operate his service legally.
223294
Virgin has today launched a music download service that will go head to head with established players including iTunes and Napster.
261241
On the day Microsoft launched it&#39;s online music service, Apple Computer responded to accusations that its doesn&#39;t offer consumers choice in music file types
296945
The announcement that Apple would be selling DRM-free music generated a lot of buzz among music enthusiasts, who had been agitating for just such a development ever since music was first offered for sale online.
375491
The world's biggest music firm, Universal, has given its backing to a free music downloads service.
698706
I saw an ad in yesterday's NY Times that offered the complete New Yorker magazine archive, including all the cartoons and ads, going back to 1920-something for a bit more than the hard disk would cost. The ad was from J&R, the company that makes the product is Pexagon. $149. Sounds like there might be DRM. I asked for something like this from the music business. A hundred gigs of popular music for $500, all pre-installed on the disk without DRM.  Someone at the New Yorker had this idea too? It's a good one. Bulk content for collector types. Another source of revenue. I want to run my own personal radio station, so having every song of a certain genre or from a certain period makes the diff.
63689
Napster on Thursday said it&#39;s testing a monthly subscription service that would let customers download an unlimited number of songs and play them on portable music devices
553991
Music fans have been slow to buy music  on their mobile phones. So several companies have responded  with services that let users access from their phones music  that is stored on their computers.
752864
(InfoWorld) - MySpace.com is launching a new music download service that emphasizes music from independent artists, the latest in a string of services announced in recent weeks that hope to topple iTunes from its crown. Some of the services, such as one backed by Universal Music Group, are even offering music for free, backed by advertising services. But analysts say they'll have trouble toppling Apple Computer's iTunes, which has staked out a solid position in what's becoming a crowded music download market. "Ultimately it's a volume business, and the market isn't large enough to sustain 20 different services," said Jonathan Arber, research analyst for OvumÂ in London. The service from MySpace.com, which is in beta today, lets users sell their own songs through their personalized MySpace home pages. The company has partnered with Snocap, a companyÂ founded by NapsterÂ founder Shawn Fanning, for some of the technology behind the service. MySpace's large user base, which it says is more than 70 million, may be key for the new offering, as it jostles with several other technology and media companies that have allied to secure a piece of the music download market. Last week, Samsung ElectronicsÂ said it would start a subscription service later this year withÂ partner MusicNet. The online store will have 2 million licensed songs from major record labels and 40,000 independent ones. Also last week, a new company,Â SpiralFrog, said it will offer free music downloadsÂ backed by Universal Music Group's catalog, with the service supported by advertising. It's due to launch in beta by the end of this year. While MySpace's service hasn't been formally announced, a marketing executive at the company began touting it on her MySpace Web page on Monday, offering tracks from a group called The Format for $0.79 each. (http://www.myspace.com/danidudeck) The service will let users embed songs in their personalized pages that other users can then purchase, wrote Dani Dudeck, MySpace director of communications. To buy songs, a user needs an account from eBay's PayPal money transfer service and a U.S. billing address. Artists will be able to set the price of their tracks, with MySpace and Snocap keeping a small service fee, according to a story Monday in Business Week magazine. The service could appeal to aspiring musicians, allowing them to skirt business arrangements with music labels and pitch their songs directly to MySpace's users. It's unclear, however, whether the major labels will embrace it. They may be wary of posting tracks on MySpace because the songs will be in an MP3 format without Digital Rights Management (DRM), which restricts how they can be copied and played, Arber said. The means the tracks could potentially be downloaded from MySpace and then uploaded to illegal file-sharing networks. At the same time, he said, the opportunity to set variable pricing for songs offered on MySpace could be more attractive for the major record labels, who have bristled over Apple's insistence on uniform pricing. Individual tracks in the U.S. retail for $0.99 each. Apple has so far retained its lead in music downloads. iPod users can purchase compatible songs from the iTunes Music Store and eMusic.com, but most other services offer songs in incompatible file formats. It's led other companies to try other approaches, such as subscription and ad-supported services, both those each present their own difficulties. Napster and Yahoo have subscription services where users have access to thousands of tracks as long as they continue to pay monthly fees. But the subscription model generally hasn't been that successful, Arber said. Ad-supported services, such as Universal's arrangement announced last week with SpiralFrog, could face competition from more experienced Internet companies. "There are already existing companies that are much better at targeting advertisers on the Web," Arber said.
574551
Apple updated iTunes to keep users from creating free iPhone ringtones--a workaround has already been posted.
317878
SAN FRANCISCO (Billboard) - Customers picking up the latest   MP3 players this fall are getting much more than just a device.   Increasingly, they're getting free music as well.
37357
Advert-powered 'iTunes killer' takes to the stage It had to happen. A new legal music download service will be launched in December which will offer MP3s free at the point of delivery. New York-based Spiralfrog says its site will be fully funded by advertising.â¦
634870
The software giant's new pay-per-download service offers an easy-to-use interface and above-average sound quality. But some critics wonder if the MSN Music service will foster a widening rift in digital music security standards. By Xeni Jardin.
447169
The hype over the free, ad-supported SpiralFrog music service is hoo ha -- the service will soon be recalled as a fad, just like last year's Crazy Frog. In Listening Post.