Digital Jukebox

Sony changes its mind about MP3s

Sony's somewhat unexpected decision to add MP3 capabilities to its digital music players suddenly makes its players look a whole lot more appealing. Previously only compatible with the company's own music file format, Atrac, portable hard drive players like the NW-HD1 now stand a much greater chance of offering serious competition to the iPod. The VGF-AP1 already offers MP3 playback and the company is aimiing to launch newly MP3-compatible devices later this year. Software upgrades for those who already own the music players will also be available.

One of the best things about the decision is that it will be far easier to use other downloads services and there will be no more faffing about converting files on your PC before copying music across. Sony Connect is one of the less user-friendly online music downloads services around, so the company should probably think about giving that a bit of a revamp before it loses all its customers to other sites.

Read

Indie labels give Apple a good bashing

The continued failure of Apple’s iTunes to secure deals with the independent record labels in the UK is causing a round of tutting and sighing within the music industry. The indie labels have been roundly criticising iTunes, and the downloads service continues to go without bands and singers such as Franz Ferdinand (this year’s Mercury Music Prize winners) and Eric Prydz, this week’s number one in the singles charts.

One of the more baffling aspects of the continuing saga is that Apple has actually signed a deal with some of the labels, such as Domino and Ninja Tune, but just hasn’t got round to adding them to the library. Chrysalis Music Group, meanwhile, is still waiting for the paperwork to turn up – as are a number of other companies.

Since independent record labels makes up around a quarter of the UK sales, you’ve got to wonder what Apple’s playing at. Napster and Sony Connect have managed to sort themselves out, so what’s taking Apple so long?

Read more

Are music files the new plastic toy?

We’re getting the feeling that it may not be so long before we’re all collecting the tokens on the back of cereal packs to get free music downloads. Why giveaway Le Creuset pans and mugs with cockerels on them, when what the public wants is the latest Kylie MP3?

The signs are already there. McDonalds and Sony appear to be teaming up to offer hungry customers free music downloads with their meals (although, no one at McDs or Sony is saying anything just yet), while London newspaper,The Evening Standard , is offering readers free tracks via Wippit .

It’s quite a strange deal, though. Readers have to buy two copies of the paper to get two passwords and then get a web address from the Tuesday edition. Once they’ve gone to all that trouble, they finally get their 10 free tracks, chosen from a set list of just 50.

The Sun newspaper has a similar deal with Napster throughout the summer, while The Guardian got there first with its deal with EMI that allowed readers to download EMI artists appearing at Glastonbury. Unlike the Evening Standard, The Sun offer allows readers to pick from the full 750,000 track Napster playlist.

So how long will it be before you’re getting free tracks in every pack of Walkers crisps, or getting Napster points on your credit and loyalty cards? Surely it can’t be far away. But there’s no mention yet of who Apple might be pairing up with. The initial rumour was that Apple and McDonalds were doing a deal, but it sounds like Sony pipped Apple to the post (and who ever heard of getting free Apples in McDonalds… sorry that was a pretty rotten Apple joke... and so was that one).

A Pepsi ring pull giveaway with iTunes apparently didn’t go down as well as expected in the States, but maybe they’d have more luck if they tried it with Tetley teabags over here in the UK.

Indies join iTunes

It was a criticism of Apple iTunes when it launched over here. Yes great service, loads of mainstream tracks from the major record labels but where are the indies.

While independents are a relatively small part of the market in the US they account for 25 per cent of sales in the UK - and are popular with the very kind of people who download music. Anyway, it seems Apple has partly addressed the problem by signing three independents: Beggars Group, Sanctuary Records Group and V2.

This means you can now download music from several big names including Morrissey, The Pixies, Prodigy, Stereophonics, Paul Weller, Basement Jaxx, The Libertines and The White Stripes.

However, before you get too excited it's worth pointing out that there are still plenty of indies who haven't signed on the dotted line yet and that Sony Connect, Napster and OD2 (the main European distributor) all have a better selection of indie tunes.

iTunes hits 100 million

In an indication of just how far ahead of the game the US is in terms of music downloading, iTunes has just announced its 100 millionth downloaded track. Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas downloaded Somersault (Dangermous remix) by Zero 7 which happened to be the 100 millionth track. In return he'll receive a 17inch PowerBook, a 40Gb iPod and a gift certificate for 10,000 iTunes songs - not a bad return just for downloading a track off the net.

OK the whole thing's a marketing stunt, and a not particularly original one at that, but it serves to highlight just how popular music downloading has become in the US and how well iTunes is doing in particular. Sony will really have to get its skates on if it hopes to catch up with Connect (www.connect.com). It has just soft launched the European version of the service (www.connect-europe.com) but will not launch its own iPod device until the Autumn by which time Apple will probably be announcing its 200 millionth download and a new mini mini iPod! The race is on.

UK music download review

Downloading music in the UK is a real nightmare at the moment. There are several competing services, which boast different tracks that are compatible with different players and charge for music in different ways.

The Guardian attempts to make some sense of it all by giving a whizz to iTunes, Napster, SonicStage and Sony’s upcoming Connect service.

Click here or read on to get the whole story

Apple's iTunes grabbed the headlines last week, but legitimate music downloads have been available in the UK for some time. Peter Gabriel's OD2 group launched last year, and a few weeks ago saw the UK arrival of Napster.
There's more to come, with Sony's Connect service slated to arrive at the end of the month and groups such as Wal-Mart, owner of Asda stores, eyeing a European launch for its downloads.

Here's our verdict on the download services that have launched in the UK.

Napster
www.napster.co.uk
The legitimate version of the service that kickstarted music downloads has more than 500,000 tracks to stream or download in the Windows Media Audio (WMA) format.

It is available in two forms. For serious music fans, there's a subscription of £9.95 per month. Users can stream or download to a PC as many tracks as they want. They can then export the tunes to a CD player or a WMA-equipped music player (Creative/Rio players are compatible and Philips models will be soon) for a further 99p or more per track.

The alternative is Napster Light. Just download tunes at a rather pricey £1.09 a throw. Albums can be a ripoff though, with some selling for over £20!

The interface, which is fairly straightforward, perhaps as a nod to its pioneering pirate days, is reminiscent of peer-to-peer service KaZaA. Overall, the service is simple to use and the choice of compatible players is a bonus.

Moz watch:
The only service to offer Morrissey's new album You Are the Quarry. Shame it costs £19.90.

Sonic Selector (MSN)
www.sonicselector.com
Recently revamped, Sonic Selector is available via a host of companies including MSN, Tiscali, Packard Bell and MTV. The MSN version boasts a fairly large library of 350,000 tracks and, as it is European in origin (the service is hosted by OD2), there's a strong bias towards British artists.

Users can hear a snippet of a track free or pay around 75p to download it to their PC. They can also stream any track for a very reasonable 1p a shot.

The software downloads quickly and meshes neatly with Windows Media player version 9. A recommendation system tracks your choices and then makes suggestions as to what you might like next. Not quite sure how it got Mariah Carey for me, though.

The tracks are downloaded in WMA and are compatible with many digital audio players. The most annoying part is the high price of albums. Unlike iTunes, where whole CDs can be bought for under £10, albums with 15 or more tracks can work out costing the best part of £20.

Moz watch: A good selection of the great man's albums, though sadly not his new one. His debut, Viva Hate, costs £19.80 to download.

iTunes
www.apple.com/uk
It might be Europe's biggest music download service, with more than 700,000 tracks just a click away, but from a UK perspective, iTunes isn't necessarily the most comprehensive. That's because the group representing smaller labels, and artists such as the White Stripes, Dizzee Rascal and hundreds of other cutting-edge acts, have yet to sign on the dotted line. Still, if you like your music mainstream and largely American, iTunes fits the bill. It is also the only one that works with Apple Macs.

Tracks are competitively priced - 79p per song and from £7.99 per album (not much less than you'll pay an online retailer for a CD). However, Apple hasn't been too generous with streaming options. There's no free or cheap streaming. Instead, you can only hear a 30-second snippet.

The tracks are in the good quality Advanced Acoustic Coding (AAC) format and are easily stored on a Mac/PC and transferred to an iPod (they aren't compatible with other players). There is, however, a good chance that other music players, and even Nokia phones, will soon be able to accommodate AAC downloads.

Weaknesses include the fact that iTunes is a 20MB file, which will take some time to download if you are on slower connection. The interface is quite clunky compared with some rivals, too.

While it isn't the service for everyone, iTunes looks certain to be the frontrunner in UK music downloads.

Moz watch:
Morrissey who? Only a couple of Smiths albums.

MyCokeMusic
www.mycokemusic.com
With its funky, in-your-face graphics, MyCokeMusic is aimed at a younger audience. This is reflected in an even stronger emphasis on individual tracks, rather than albums, and the higher profile of dance music on its website.

As with MSN (both are operated by OD2), it costs 1p to stream a track and 80p on average per download. Like other OD2 sites, downloading music involves buying credits that are debited each time you stream/download. Users can also pay via SMS, with the cost added to their phone bill.

Moz watch: see SonicSelector

Wippit www.wippit.com
The underdog of the UK download market, Wippit has just 60,000 tracks from around 200 record labels (though it does include a few biggies in EMI and BMG).

There are plenty of ways to buy, ranging from one-off payments, usually around 80p, to a yearly unlimited download deal for a competitive £50.

Tracks are mainly available in WMA, although there are still a few MP3s lurking.

Overall, it is an easy-to-use service and the yearly download deal is incredible value. It needs more record companies on board and a higher profile to be a real contender, though.

Moz watch: A solid selection of the Mancunian bard's back catalogue.

Sony Connect www.connect.com

Launched in the US a few months ago and scheduled to arrive in Europe any day, Sony's service will feature 300,000 tracks from the big five plus a healthy selection of indie labels.

Tracks, which sell for 79p, will have excellent sound as they will be encoded in Sony's proprietary Atrac 3 format at 132Kbps. The downside is they can only be ported on to Atrac 3 devices manufactured by Sony.

The US version of the site has been criticised for lacking community features, such as seeing what other people are buying.

Caveat emptor
You might be tempted to go on a shopping spree, but a mess of incompatible technologies could give you more than you bargained for. When you buy a CD you know your music is playable on any device. But in the online world, where files can be copied with ease, the record companies have insisted on strong anti-piracy technology.

Known as Digital Rights Management (DRM), the technology restricts how you listen to your music. Tracks purchased from Apple's iTunes store, use the company's FairPlay DRM. It gives you the right to play your music on up to five computers and burn the same playlist to a CD seven times. According to critics, however, it's a technical solution to the wrong problem, preventing sharing when labels should only really be concerned with making sure artists are paid.

DRM is also being used to lock customers into proprietary hardware and software. Tracks downloaded from iTunes cannot be played on portable players other than the iPod. Apple argues this is no big deal as the iPod is, by far, the most popular portable player. But the company has made no effort to allow the iPod to play music purchased from rival music stores. Apple's chief executive has made it clear he won't change while rivals fall short of 50% market share. Rivals typically use Windows Media DRM, which Microsoft openly licenses. The result is that music purchased from Napster and stores using Peter Gabriel's OD2 service (mycokemusic.com, HMV, Virgin etc) can be played on more than 60 portable devices - except the iPod.

"The iTunes store in the States is the market leader," says Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter Research, because "there's no portable player using Microsoft DRM that's anywhere near as good as the iPod."

Sony's Connect service will only be compatible with its MiniDisc players. The lack of a common standard is prompting calls for a standards revolution. Leonardo Chiariglione, founder of the MPeg video standard, believes the IT industry has much to learn from the world of consumer electronics.

"The battle between Apple and Microsoft is no different from the VHS versus Betamax one," he says. "The experience there taught us that what prevails is a technology that provides interoperability for consumers." The Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA) - of which Apple is a part - has developed a blueprint for an open-standards DRM. But, according to Michael Gartenberg: "As long as the iPod is as successful as it is, there's little incentive for Apple to adopt standards."

It's clear we're going to have to live with incompatible DRM technologies. So before you start building a massive collection of songs, consider exactly how and where you're going to be able to listen to them - years down the line.

iTunes launches in UK

You've bought the player, now download the tracks without having to use an American address and credit card! In a visit to London Apple boss Steve Jobs announced the long-awaited launch of iTunes for the UK, France and Germany. Previously the service was only available in the US.

Prices are 79p (0.99 Euros) per track or £7.99 per album (though chart CDs on www.cdwow.com will only cost you a £1 more - and that's with all the casing and artwork). Apple claims there will be over 700,000 songs from all five music companies plus dozens of independents - though we understand many of them have still yet to sign up.

“The number one online music store in the world has finally come to the UK, France and Germany,” said Jobs at the London press conference. “With a huge catalogue of over 700,000 songs, breakthrough prices of just €0.99 and £0.79 per song and seamless integration with Apple’s wildly popular iPod, we think this is the digital music store that Europe has been waiting for.”

Around 500,000 tracks have been downloaded legally in the UK so far this year - a tiny proportion of the US market where millions are downloaded every year. Napster launched a rival service a fortnight ago and OD2 - Europe's biggest online music distiributor - has just launched Sonic Selector with Microsoft. Sony is also expected to grab a slice of the action with its Connect service due later this month.

Artists who have signed up for iTunes include: Anastasia, Ash, The Beastie Boys, Beginner, Black Eyed Peas, The Corrs, Jamie Cullum, The Cure, The Darkness, Arielle Dombasle, Bebel Gilberto, Herbert Groenemeyer, PJ Harvey, The Hives, Indochine, Norah Jones, Keane, Bob Marley, George Michael, Eddy Mitchell, Moby, Pascal Obispo, The Pixies, Rosenstolz, Seeed, Snow Patrol and Mano Solo.

Here are a list of iTunes features

* “iMix,” a way for users to publish playlists of their favourite songs on the iTunes Music Store for other users to preview, rate and purchase. iMix creates a virtual iTunes community, enabling users to discover new music recommended by fellow music fans and rate the iMixes published by other iTunes users

* Party Shuffle,” a playlist that automatically chooses songs from a user’s music library, displays just-played and upcoming songs, and allows users to add, delete and rearrange upcoming songs on the fly. Party Shuffle is, claims Apple, the ultimate DJ at any gathering and a great way for users to get reacquainted with their personal music library

* More than 5,000 audiobooks which can be purchased with one click and listened to on any Mac or Windows computer as well as on iPods. iTunes is the only digital music jukebox that allows users to purchase audiobooks in the same easy way that they purchase music

* Instant registration on the iTunes Music Store for AOL Europe customers using their existing screen names and passwords with direct links to buy songs from the iTunes Music Store in the UK, France and Germany. Exclusive recordings from Sessions@AOL and AOL’s Broadband Rocks will be available on the iTunes Music Store in the UK, France and Germany later this month

* The ability to create and print CD jewel case inserts for albums or compilation discs, combining album art and track lists using professionally designed templates. For compilation CDs, iTunes will automatically generate a mosaic of album covers based on the chosen songs

* Automatic WMA to AAC conversion, enabling Windows users to automatically create iTunes versions of their songs encoded in unprotected WMA.

For more information go to Apple iTunes website.

Music downloads: the heat is on

Just a few hours until the official launch of Apple iTunes in the UK and already the cracks may be starting to show. Microsoft and OD2 - the biggest distributor of online music in Europe - have just announced an online music download partnership while rumour has it that music from indie labels won't be available via Apple's iTunes service at launch.

Announced a day before the iTunes UK launch, Sonic Selector is OD2's attempt to keep in touch with the US big boys, namely Apple and Napster, by forming an alliance with the biggest boy of them all, Microsoft. An upgrade to Windows Media Player, it will be via the web sites of OD2 retailers including MSN, Tiscali, MTV and Packard Bell. Tracks will cost 75p or 0.99 Euros.

Meanwhile the word on the street is that Apple has failed to sign deals with major independents for UK music distribution. This is a major blow as the indies account for 25 of music retail sales in the UK with their music targeted at the very people who are likely to download tracks to their MP3 players!

The list of successful independent artists includes Basement Jaxx, Franz Ferdinand, Dizzee Rascal, So Solid Crew, The White Stripes, The Strokes, Royksopp, The Pixies, Lemon Jelly and Coldcut.

We will have full information on the Apple iTunes launch later today.

Apple names iTunes day

It is not something that we can fully confirm but we are pretty certain that June 15th will be the day that Apple finally announces the launch of its iTunes music download service for Europe/UK.

The company has called a music-based press conference on that day where it will probably also confirm definite shipping dates for the Apple iPod mini music player.

Apple’s big rival in the music download stakes, Napster launched in the UK a couple of weeks back, while Sony promises that its Connect service will also go live during June.