The developer of the
PlayLouder music identification service service is
denying that a deal with a major British Internet service provider is imminent, casting doubt on an earlier
report. Co-founder Paul Hitchman of Media Service Provider Ltd., the company behind PlayLouder, tells
Billboard that reports of an agreement with an unnamed ISP are "pure speculation," although he acknowledged that the company has been looking to forge a partnership with an ISP to create a legal music service for broadband customers.
Six U.K. ISPs
said last month that they would cooperate with the British government's request to develop legal online music services in order to curb piracy, beginning by threatening individual customers known to have shared music files illegally. We still don't know what such services will look like. They could resemble U.S.-based subscription services such as RealNetworks Inc.'s [
RNWK] Rhapsody and Napster Inc. [
NAPS], in which customers pay a flat fee for access to legal streaming files and limited-use tethered downloads. Or, they could be more like the so-called "
music tax," where all of the ISP's customers pay for all of the peer-to-peer file-swapping. PlayLouder's technology, which inspects network traffic to locate music files, then matches them to a song database to identify recipients of royalties, could come in especially handy for the latter model.
Among the major British ISPs, only BSkyB has revealed any
details about its service, and it's not due to launch until next year. The connectivity provider has signed Universal Music Group as a partner, and expects to offer both streaming music and limited downloads free of digital rights management software. But, after heavy pressure from the trade association
British Phonographic Industry and the British government, five more ISPs have agreed to create legal alternatives to file sharing. They include Carphone Warehouse plc, Virgin Media Inc. [
VMED], BT Group plc, France Télécom's Orange and Tiscali SpA.
-- Paul BonanosSee previous posts from Tech Confidential about
British ISPs, the
"music tax" and
BSkyB's serviceFor more see
Billboard.biz and
PaidContent UK
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