After my post on legal sources of DRM free music in the UK, Steve Purdham, CEO of We7 posted the following:
At We7, All the content we sell is DRM free and will work on linux. Unfortunately thats not the front line content at the moment but that will change in the coming months. The streaming will work on any computer with flash installed.
hope this helps,
Steve Purdham
CEO - We7
This is a music download service with a difference. For starters you can listen to streaming versions of all the songs for free (albeit with a short advert at the start of each track). The fun starts when you sign up (which is free too).
At this point you can choose to either buy the song via ITunes, buy the song as an MP3 direct from them (costing 70p), save to your streaming playlist, or download a free advert supported MP3 (encoded at 192khz).
Listening to your playlist is certainly no worse than listening to music on the radio (remember doing that back in the day?) and the short adverts aren't too obtrusive at the moment, not to mention that this station is playing only the songs that you choose.
As if that wasn't enough, there is a big bonus for all the cheapskates out there.
All downloaded advert supported tracks will also be listed on your "Available Soon" page. After 28 days you get the option to spend some of your We7 credits (of which you get 20 free ones each month) to buy ad-free versions at either a discount, or in some cases entirely free! You can buy extra credits as you want.
The site itself is very clean, it is very easy to find the music, and the playlist features of the site work well.
At the moment the content is a bit hit-and-miss, with some stuff only available via links to ITunes, but in all fairness even though the site is still in beta there is a good selection of stuff avilable for us Linux users.
I've been browsing their site today and I've got to admit I think it's a great way to sample new music, especially the unsigned bands section. Hopefully this will take off in a big way, especially as this should work on any platform that supports flash player.
Why not head on over to www.we7.com and give it a shot?
Update 1: I've had more of a hunt through their site and found some more cool stuff.
They have a pop-up player application to play your streaming playlists (which is a really nice idea), plus they allow you to embed the streaming media in your blog / website
Nice or what?
Showing posts with label DRM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DRM. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Sunday, 20 July 2008
Where to buy legal DRM-free music in the UK?
During an in-depth discussion with a work colleague last week (basically he was trolling the "Linux users want everything for free" point of view) the discussion moved round to digital music downloads, and how people should support ITunes (he's a Mac user).
My point was that the DRM used for ITunes rules it out for me (the DRM isn't supported on Linux). Even for Apple's DRM free stuff the necessity to run the ITunes player to access the ITunes shop rules Linux out unless you are willing to try and run it through Wine.
The main alternative if you are running Linux is to buy the CD and rip it to MP3 or OGG yourself. Amazon was suggested as an alternative source of legal MP3s.
So I checked. Amazon do sell DRM free MP3s which is great. . . . . . if you live in America. That's right - they don't sell to Europe yet.
So what other options do we have in the UK for this?
HMV also sell regular MP3s, alongside the DRM'd WMA files, but as their site says if you try and access it from FireFox:
Unfortunately at the moment, hmv downloads is not compatible with Firefox, Safari or Opera browsers.
If you can see this message, please access the service using Internet Explorer.
Bugger. Another route blocked.
That leaves us with Play.com. Their service supports MP3s, and works through any browser. They've also got a fairly decent range of music to choose from, and they are cheaper than the competition.
To quote the Play.com site:
Works with all MP3 players, including IPods. DRM free MP3s. No software to install.
Nice one! Track prices range from around 60p to 70p each (this varies from album to album but appears to be cheaper than the competition) and are encoded as 192khz and 320khz MP3s, again this varies from album to album, but most new ones seem to be 320khz.
So for commercial DRM free music downloads on Linux it looks like it is a one horse race at the moment, with Play.com being the only runner.
So do any of you know of any legal DRM free download services that run on native Linux and are available to those of us in the UK?
My point was that the DRM used for ITunes rules it out for me (the DRM isn't supported on Linux). Even for Apple's DRM free stuff the necessity to run the ITunes player to access the ITunes shop rules Linux out unless you are willing to try and run it through Wine.
The main alternative if you are running Linux is to buy the CD and rip it to MP3 or OGG yourself. Amazon was suggested as an alternative source of legal MP3s.
So I checked. Amazon do sell DRM free MP3s which is great. . . . . . if you live in America. That's right - they don't sell to Europe yet.
So what other options do we have in the UK for this?
HMV also sell regular MP3s, alongside the DRM'd WMA files, but as their site says if you try and access it from FireFox:
Unfortunately at the moment, hmv downloads is not compatible with Firefox, Safari or Opera browsers.
If you can see this message, please access the service using Internet Explorer.
Bugger. Another route blocked.
That leaves us with Play.com. Their service supports MP3s, and works through any browser. They've also got a fairly decent range of music to choose from, and they are cheaper than the competition.
To quote the Play.com site:
Works with all MP3 players, including IPods. DRM free MP3s. No software to install.
Nice one! Track prices range from around 60p to 70p each (this varies from album to album but appears to be cheaper than the competition) and are encoded as 192khz and 320khz MP3s, again this varies from album to album, but most new ones seem to be 320khz.
So for commercial DRM free music downloads on Linux it looks like it is a one horse race at the moment, with Play.com being the only runner.
So do any of you know of any legal DRM free download services that run on native Linux and are available to those of us in the UK?
Tuesday, 6 November 2007
BBC iPlayer
Here's a slice of personal opinion for you - DRM is what you use when you want to treat your customers like thieves.
The BBC has managed to do this with their launch of the iPlayer. Now for those of us in the UK the iPlayer is a pretty nice app to allow you to download BBC content to watch on your PC (content that your TV license fee has paid for by the way) - sort of a catch-up service.
The problem is that thanks to the BBC using Microsoft's DRM for the video they have effectively ruled out Linux users from using the service. Yes, there will be a web based service (using Adobe Flash presumably) "before Christmas" but as far as high resolution video goes - forget it. For now at least.
The BBC's head of technology has this to say: "We're totally committed to universality, to getting the service out to everyone, and to platform neutrality." And how, exactly does this fit with using a restricted codec? Answer: it doesn't.
Part of the BBC's justification for this has been the number of Linux users: "We have 17.1 million users of bbc.co.uk in the UK and, as far as our server logs can make out, 5 per cent of those [use Macs] and around 400 to 600 are Linux users." As one of the 600 I'm not too sure that their figures are correct.
As it turns out, is the BBC isn't too sure about those figures either: "Alternative analysis that we have run off which performs the measurement in different ways suggests that the potential number of Linux users could range from 0.3% to 0.8% (which, from a total UK bbc.co.uk user base of 12.2m weekly users [source: TNS] could imply a user base between 36,600 and 97,600."
Just think Mr Highfield - that's up to 97,600 viewers you are turning away.
Isn't it a shame that you didn't use an open video codec. You could have supported every platform without any real difficulties. This is what happens when you treat your viewers (who have already paid for the content) like thieves.
Thank you Auntie Beeb.
The BBC has managed to do this with their launch of the iPlayer. Now for those of us in the UK the iPlayer is a pretty nice app to allow you to download BBC content to watch on your PC (content that your TV license fee has paid for by the way) - sort of a catch-up service.
The problem is that thanks to the BBC using Microsoft's DRM for the video they have effectively ruled out Linux users from using the service. Yes, there will be a web based service (using Adobe Flash presumably) "before Christmas" but as far as high resolution video goes - forget it. For now at least.
The BBC's head of technology has this to say: "We're totally committed to universality, to getting the service out to everyone, and to platform neutrality." And how, exactly does this fit with using a restricted codec? Answer: it doesn't.
Part of the BBC's justification for this has been the number of Linux users: "We have 17.1 million users of bbc.co.uk in the UK and, as far as our server logs can make out, 5 per cent of those [use Macs] and around 400 to 600 are Linux users." As one of the 600 I'm not too sure that their figures are correct.
As it turns out, is the BBC isn't too sure about those figures either: "Alternative analysis that we have run off which performs the measurement in different ways suggests that the potential number of Linux users could range from 0.3% to 0.8% (which, from a total UK bbc.co.uk user base of 12.2m weekly users [source: TNS] could imply a user base between 36,600 and 97,600."
Just think Mr Highfield - that's up to 97,600 viewers you are turning away.
Isn't it a shame that you didn't use an open video codec. You could have supported every platform without any real difficulties. This is what happens when you treat your viewers (who have already paid for the content) like thieves.
Thank you Auntie Beeb.
Tuesday, 18 September 2007
Psst! Hey buddy, want some free music?
Universal have released a new music service with a bit of a twist - you can download the albums for free.
Their SpiralFrog service has been in beta for a while but has now been released to the general public. You can subscribe for free, install their download manager and be off downloading legal music before you know it.
Providing you use Windows. And aren't allergic to DRM. And you don't want to burn it to CD. Or play it on the majority of MP3 players (such as IPods, Mobile Phones, cheap EBay Mp3 players).
If are willing to use Windows for your musical needs, or your MP3 player supports PlaysForSure DRM then you're laughing. There is a good selection of albums there already and the quality of the tracks is OK (128kbps). The site is still experiencing some teething problems, and I found that the easiest way to download an album was one track at a time, as having multiple tracks in the download list causes download errors after the first couple of tracks. There have also been more than a couple of 404 errors when following links on the site.
One other detail is that you'll need to renew your account every 30 days by answering some questions on their website. If you don't then your music stops working. Nice.
At present, if you are a Windows user and want a legal way to increase your music collection then this isn't a bad option, but for the rest of us it isn't as good as it could have been.
Their SpiralFrog service has been in beta for a while but has now been released to the general public. You can subscribe for free, install their download manager and be off downloading legal music before you know it.
Providing you use Windows. And aren't allergic to DRM. And you don't want to burn it to CD. Or play it on the majority of MP3 players (such as IPods, Mobile Phones, cheap EBay Mp3 players).
If are willing to use Windows for your musical needs, or your MP3 player supports PlaysForSure DRM then you're laughing. There is a good selection of albums there already and the quality of the tracks is OK (128kbps). The site is still experiencing some teething problems, and I found that the easiest way to download an album was one track at a time, as having multiple tracks in the download list causes download errors after the first couple of tracks. There have also been more than a couple of 404 errors when following links on the site.
One other detail is that you'll need to renew your account every 30 days by answering some questions on their website. If you don't then your music stops working. Nice.
At present, if you are a Windows user and want a legal way to increase your music collection then this isn't a bad option, but for the rest of us it isn't as good as it could have been.
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