A digital music service [to be called “Mercora”] set up by the founder of McAfee hopes to create networks of people recommending and buying songs online, John Borland reports for CNET News.com, “[Mercora] is putting a twist on digital music sales, hoping to spur the creation of like-minded, music-loving minicommunities that can help sell new bands and artists to each other. The self-funded company even plans a smidgen of peer-to-peer distribution, according to Sampath. Songs bought through the service will all be wrapped tightly in Microsoft copy-protection technology, but people may be able to download them from each other’s computers in order to save on bandwidth costs and download times, he said.”
“Sampath said the software — which bears a striking resemblance to iTunes — will show people songs and music choices based on what other people in their listening groups are tapping into that day,” Borland reports.
The company is currently in negotiations with the major music labels for the distribution rights and plans to launch a preview version of its service in early November.
Full article here.
It’s all good.
Wonderful! You get all the disadvantages of peer-to-peer networks (except the illegality), & you also get to pay for it . . . & put up with Microsoft’s draconic DRM scheme! What could be more perfect? Maybe they could charge extra for viruses!