While digital music subscription services such as RealNetworks Inc.'s
Rhapsody [
RNWK] and
Napster Inc. [
NAPS] have augmented their services with
DRM-free download stores in recent weeks, U.K.-based British Sky Broadcasting is looking to integrate downloads into a hybrid subscription model. The satellite television provider and ISP is
preparing to introduce a subscription service that will include unlimited streams and a limited number of DRM-free monthly downloads, which will continue to play even if the subscriber cancels. The largest major label, Universal Music Group, has agreed to provide music; presumably BSkyB is negotiating with the others.
Although the model doesn't much resemble Apple Inc.'s [
AAPL] iTunes,
some observers are playing it up as a direct competitor to the market-leading download store. That's probably because Apple
claims 50% market share in the U.K., making any other service a competitor on some level.
But to my eyes, BSkyB's service will seem more like the legal alternative to file-sharing that music-rental services Rhapsody and Napster always aspired to be. Its advantage, though, is flexibility: Do what you like with your MP3s, and stream whatever you don't want to keep. And rather than hogging bandwidth to the chagrin of ISPs as peer-to-peer networks do, the service will instead act as a revenue stream for BSkyB while avoiding the dreaded "
music tax" idea periodically
floated in the U.K. (and elsewhere). What's more, it's convenient for ISP customers to add as an enhancement to an existing service, not unlike adding HDTV capabilities to a cable subscription.
Generally speaking, subscription services have not caught on as quickly as expected. Rhapsody delivers music to about
3 million subscribers, although some are mobile or premium radio customers; Napster has less than 800,000 paying subscribers, and is thought to be a
takeover target. Both have introduced DRM-free stores that sell music files that are compatible with Apple's iPods, although their subscription song files are not.
-- Paul BonanosSee Tech Confidential posts on download stores offered by
Rhapsody and
NapsterFor more see
The Guardian
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