“Virgin Group is set to announce a partnership with Internet developer MusicNet today to build the retailer’s online music store. The Virgin site, which will launch in late summer, will try to differentiate itself from the myriad of other stores by offering a monthly subscription plan that, for less than $10, will let users listen to as many songs as they like,” Stephen Lynch reports for The New York Post. “If the subscription is canceled, those songs will no longer be accessible – although users will also have the option of buying music permanently.”
“The Virgin store will use Microsoft’s digital-music format, WMA, which is backed by online retailers such as Wal-Mart and Napster. The leading online music store, iTunes, uses a competing format from Apple,” Lynch reports. “Zack Zalon, president of Virgin Digital, said the large number of digital-music devices backing WMA will give it an advantage over iTunes, which interacts with only one player, the iPod. ‘We believe Microsoft will eventually define the standard,’ Zalon said. ‘Apple is an innovator, but, because it has a closed standard, it will fall off.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: You can start laughing now, if you’re not already. Subscriptions? Failed idea. WMA is not a “closed standard?” Apple will “fall off?” You mean like Napster 2.0, BuyMusic.com, etc. fell off or are currently in the process of falling off the map – pushed by iTunes, no less? Mr. Zalon overlooks the simple, usually-easy-to-comprehend fact: millions of iPods sold and millions selling right now means those millions of iPoders will not be using Virgin’s “service” if and when it ever becomes available in August. We’ll be using iTunes and Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Bigtime. So will HP iPoders. Give us a call when you’re not just peddling vapor and FUD, Mr. Zalon.
he should have dinner with scotty plum
Does anyone, I mean anyone actually look, listen, and think? It’s is so freaking clear that this sort of service just doesn’t work. No, I’m not going to pay you $120 a year for the priviledge to just listen to music, and possibly buy from you. Duh.
Is this another US site (in which case doomed to fail) or something for the UK?
Wippit may succeed in the UK. But it has no Mac client yet. You can petition them to add a mac client by mailing to enoughbillgatesalready@wippit.com
It’s currently subscription, and uses P2P. You get to burn and keep music you download (legally) and can only share with other subscribers. This is a model I prefer to iTunes. The library is much more limited, so it won’t suit everybody. It’s something I’d try and if it didn’t work for me, I’d just move one.
They use MP3. Not WMA. This is another important point too.
If iPod did WMA, it could well be bew-bye iTMS. As long as it doesn’t, people will stick with MP3/AAC.
The really scary thing here is the underlying message this sends. Virgin was already in the music biz before this online stuff started, unlike Apple and Napster (Napster was into music, just not the business). And after all this, it goes to show how they aren’t learning anything. People don’t want to rent music. That’s not the way it works. You rent a movie, becuase most of the time you only watch it once, yet you listen to a song over and over again. I really think this is starting to sound repetitive, and it only shows how the music industry as a whole is getting stupider by the day. Time for an enema, I say.
Just like mr. thurrot(note lower case), this guy thinks that negative publicity is gonna hurt Apple. This could only be the only reason he writes this…otherwise he looks like a fool because the numbers DON’T add up!!
They are looking like fools trying to affect people towards their side. I got to tip my hat to HP in not joining the crowd on the spiraling toilet bandwagon. Reality is reality and the iPod and the mini are the bomb and it will continue.
I don’t see the innovation here. Others have tried the exact same thing and failed. The general public doesn’t give a tinker’s dam about file encryption. What they want is a way to buy music online easily and cheaply, and then to be able to put it into an easy-to-use portable player just as easily. No one else offers the simplicity and quality that Apple does.
I do admire Virgin Group for racing down a known dead-end, and thinking they can blaze a new trail past the discarded wrecks that have tried before them. They have the right idea, but they are going down the wrong road.
Good luck Virgin Group! Your company will provide entertainment, but unfortunately it won’t be in music, just some fun for Apple users that like to watch a good crash and burn.
10 bucks a month for music you can’t keep? Shit, do that with movies and you’ve sold me, but music?
You can slate apple all you want for not using WMA, but Mpeg4 is better anyway, and if you buy one song from apple, it’s basically yours for life. I don’t want to have to pay a subscription to listen to music that I payed for (on top of the subscription).
My biggest gripe about subscription/streaming services is this: what do I do when I’m not in front my computer?
Say I subscribe in January. I listen to all the hottest new tunes. Six months (and $60 later), I decide to skip off to the beach for the weekend. I’d love to bring my music collection with me on my Napster/Samsung player so I can get down in the sand. But wait…
Any of those hot new tunes I deem worthy for a festive beach mix are not mine to burn and/or download to my portable music player. To do that, I’ve got to offer up an additional buck for every song I couldn’t live without for the few days.
Ouch.
I’ve already got a free streaming service. It’s called the radio…and I don’t listen to that either.
Down with subscriptions. Good luck, Mr. Zalon. You will soooooooo need it.
The Virgin site, which will launch in late summer, will try to differentiate itself from the myriad of other stores by offering a monthly subscription plan that, for less than $10, will let users listen to as many songs as they like,” Stephen Lynch reports for The New York Post. “If the subscription is canceled, those songs will no longer be accessible – although users will also have the option of buying music permanently.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Yeah, that’s going to differentiate you from Napster. ‘Cause that’s way different from what they offer.
“Zack Zalon, president of Virgin Digital, said the large number of digital-music devices backing WMA will give it an advantage over iTunes.”
Well, we can’t argue with failure, can we. Get a Clue�, Zach.
Steve Jobs, in the Marketplace, with the iPod/iTMS combo.
all run the end is near, doom, gloom, apple is dead, itunes is dead, ipod is dead…. IF so why can’t I find a dang ipod. No trouble finding any of the others… Same nonsense.
Oh my oh my. How many ‘rent my music for big bucks’ business models have to fail before idiots realize it does NOT WORK!
LOL, are they delusional or what? And all the iPods owner who buy over a million tunes a month (or is that a week) what are supposed to do? Put the iPod in a drawer, buy a crappy player and buy WMA music?
HAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAH
what a dummy dummy stupid-head
Ummm, I am a avid Mac user, but if you think Richard Branson has no pull in the music industry, you might want to think again, wma will fail, but Mr. Branson will go with AAC if it does, this gentleman is no joke.
The larger number of players support WMA and constitutes the smaller part of the bought music online. Is that too difficult to understand that even owners of those players have ditched them for an iPod.
Virgin only hope to make a dent is to support AAC – ie open standard mp4 – and an iPod supporting store. He might have a pull in the music industry but whoever calls AAC a closed standard is an idiot who has no idea of what he is talking about.
Hmmm, I wonder if Virgin is part of the holdup with iTMS in Europe. Jobs wants everything to be the same. If Virgin is not licencing to Apple at the same rates as in the US, that is ONE explanation of the holdup.
If Virgin was smart they would simply license Fairplay from Apple and support AAC/Fairplay with their own version. Virgin could also make an HP like deal and sell Virgin branded iPods.
Apple has always stated that they don’t make money on the music, just the iPods.
Apple should license our Fairplay ONLY to other music download companies. This way they can sell more iPods.
i think virgin are right – Apple needs to support all the players out there if it is not eventaully to be a niche.
John,
I look at it the other way. Other music download sites should support other formats that WMA. They should give you an option of what format you can dl your music.
I don’t like the fact that HD-DVD will be in M$ proprietary format and M$ will get $$$$ for each HD-DVD sold. Why was Mpeg-4 created???
>> the large number of digital-music devices backing WMA will give it an advantage over iTunes, which interacts with only one player, the iPod.
I actually agree with this, so john-the-previous-poster and I are on the same page. Fairplay-enabled AAC needs to work on as many portable players as possible (more thna just the iPod), and I’d even like to see Musicmatch, Real, and (gasp !) Windows Media player support these files too.
Apple has demonstrated that it can win on product. I’d hate for the company to struggle with file incompatabilities.
It’s all about real life stories, and I happen to have one.
I have a buddy (PC user) and he sent me an IM about getting frustrated fumbling about one night with MusicMatch and other Jukeboxes. I messaged him back, and said “go get iTunes”, and he said “what’s that?”. I sent him a link and he downloaded and installed it. A few hours later, he would not shut up about it: “this is the $hit, man this iTunes rox”, etc etc. He spent $40 in iTMS the next night. He asked me if his girlfriend’s RIO (or whatever it is) would work with iTunes, and I said “go buy an iPod”. Even though they only had their RIO for about 3 weeks, the next day they went to CompUSA and bought a 40GB iPod, and he raves about the whole thing. One thing worth noting, is that he was trying to rip CD’s that night with MusicMatch and one CD would take 40 minutes+, he was astounded when iTunes ripped his CD’s in mere minutes.
Good stuff.
KIA plan to launch a new car that will operate Microsoft�s new OS version XP. The spokesman says that this new move will bring luxury to the car industry because of Microsoft’s OS.
“… It will be a more efficient car and certainly more compatible. Any service car can be provided at existent MCSA certified garages unlike other innovative cars like Mercedes and BMW that requires a more restrictive certification, thus closed standard�� The spokesman stated.
He added, This revolutionary car will cause Mercedes to fall off.
This article like Zack Zalon’s report was found in a disney newpaper purchased from the land of the Wizard of OZ.
P.S. Please note that this newspaper edition is sold with a thick joint of 6inches.
iTMS is already dead – so is Apple, and Luxembourg has too small a percentage of the world population to exist, so it doesn’t. You’re all doomed. Doomed I say. Please visit my website. Please.
At some point either Apple will need to license Fairplay so that other players will be able to support songs sold on iTMS OR license the DRM version of WMA so that the iPod can play crappy WMA tunes purchased elsewhere. If they don’t they will become a niche.
The questions are which route to take (open Fairplay or license WMA) and when (now, a month, a year, after 5 million iPods, etc…)?
Note: the other players could license the open MP4 standard(non-drm AAC) right now if they wanted to.
Spready, no one is stopping them. Others – not just Apple – support AAC as well. Fact is, instead of going with an open standard (mp4) they decided for MS proprietary format (WMA). They bet on who was coming out as customers choice.
They lost the bet and they have yet to realize that.