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Virgin Media and UMG launching unlimited music service

musically.com — Paying a monthly subscription fee, users will be able to stream AND download as many music tracks and albums as they want from UMG’s entire catalog. The unlimited music service was announced today won’t launch until later in the year.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 15, 2009

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  • glaz, on 06/15/2009, -0/+20Imagine if they had done this 10 years ago.
  • RocketGib, on 06/15/2009, -6/+25. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _________
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  • 64705, on 06/15/2009, -0/+11Shame its just UMG and not all labels. Maybe the dinosaurs running these record companies will tag along when they see the monetary benefits.
  • Tyler2tall147, on 06/15/2009, -2/+13It will probably be like Zune Pass, you only get to keep like 10 songs
  • inactive, on 06/15/2009, -1/+11I don't see how this would work without using some form of DRM. In which case, why bother?
  • RealmDown, on 06/15/2009, -0/+3Will it remix?
  • waggy27, on 06/15/2009, -2/+5I'm with Virgin Media and I've not had any of the problems described by Pigeon in all fairness. I've certainly been able to download more than 1gb/hour without getting throttled.
  • sheetrock, on 06/15/2009, -1/+4Probably will. But if it's delivered well -- easy to use, priced according to what the market will bear, etc. -- there's no reason a ton of people won't pay for it. Look at iTunes, where all the content could be had for free elsewhere but the packaging and content delivery makes it so convenient to use compared to piracy that people become customers. People are paying for the service more than for the content.

    Part of why this deal should be so important to the music industry is that there's a whole generation now that's only getting their music through downloading. The industry has to keep people in the habit of paying for this stuff any way they can, even if it means having to innovate once in a while.
  • glaz, on 06/15/2009, -2/+4The answer to your problem lies within your argument itself. If before they had problems with bandwidth and they now intend to give unlimited bandwidth, then they are likely upgrading their infrastructure to cope.
  • jamie365, on 06/15/2009, -2/+4much better link here:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8100394.stm
  • cereal1, on 06/15/2009, -3/+5Um, Napster did this/still does this. They have for years, you can stream or download any tracks you want for a monthly fee. I cancelled last year when they said they were jacking up their prices.
  • ShrayMonks, on 06/16/2009, -0/+2http://instanttrap.com
  • MacHarborGuy, on 06/15/2009, -1/+3Pandora still works, and over the Edge network in a very ***** area for wireless signals, so I can pass on this one
  • JackSchittt, on 06/15/2009, -3/+5People will continue to complain about it and just come up with a new excuse to justify their piracy.

  • jcrash, on 06/16/2009, -0/+2From the Yahoo article:
    All of the MP3 downloads will be DRM-free, which means consumers will be able to play them indefinitely on whatever device they choose.
  • RogerMcDodger, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2I don't know why Pigeon is being dugg down, he/she is correct about VM.

    Using your 2mb connection at full speed for 65 minutes during the day or 35 minutes in the evening gets you limited to 1mb for 5 hours. Using a 10mb or 20mb connection for 40-45 minutes during the day or 20-25 minutes in the evening gets you throttled at 75%, although many people get much worse speeds than 75%.

    Virgin are a pretty good provider from what I hear of others around the world and domestically, but they are far from perfect.

    (day is 10am-3pm, evening is 4pm-9pm but they arent strict)
  • Chooxo, on 06/15/2009, -2/+4Meh, I can live with Spotify. I don't need to download songs that bad.
  • Frostek, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2Pandora is blocked in the UK.
  • Tyler2tall147, on 06/16/2009, -0/+2they had drm, when you cancelled you lost the mp3s
  • Blydchyld, on 06/16/2009, -0/+1Riccalo, your on Virgin national ADSL there isnt any throttling at all.

    Therefore your wrong.
  • Blydchyld, on 06/16/2009, -0/+1Cause this way doesnt have the potential of sending you to prison?
  • inactive, on 07/13/2009, -0/+150 a year doesn't sound that bad...
  • combo808, on 06/15/2009, -0/+1Universal Music Group is the only major player in the music industry today. Sony/BMG is defunked and publishing rights were sold to Universal. Warner music group has had their funding slashed and hold only have a handful of artists.

    Universal had to make this move, its obviously a last resort attempt to keep the company alive. Artists were all jumping ship and were only signing distribution deals with these labels. When you have an influential artist like Jay-Z say he's going independent publicly, then you know changes have to be done.

  • Blydchyld, on 06/16/2009, -0/+1What the heck are you talking about.

    Your complaining that the 2Mb service you chose to pay for (which is being upped to 10mb for free anyway) is too slow?

    In that case go get the 50Mb package, it rox my world.

    I suppose your pissed that your Fiat punto isnt as fast as a 911?
  • Pigeon, on 06/15/2009, -6/+7Oh this is nice. If I try to download more than a GB in a hour on my ACTUAL INTERNET CONNECTION that is branded as "Unlimited" I get ***** in the ass with speed caps. A GB isn't that much, it's like one uncompressed map yet they bitch and moan about "fair use" of the infrastructure. They bitch that too many people download too many movies/music and it clogs their infrastructure and you shouldn't do it etc. etc.

    So what do they do?

    They launch a service where you can access "unlimited music"! Which will probably NOT be capped. How the ***** does this make sense? They cap people because "our infrastructure isn't coping" then go on to launch a "unlimited music" service.

    "The UK digital market is littered with the corpses of failed music subscription services." - Yep, now about you put some money into upgrading your infrastructure instead of jerking off the corporate media whores. Oh wait, you won't do that, because then your customers who wanted "fast, unlimited internet access" would actually be getting what they are paid for.
  • xGrill, on 06/15/2009, -0/+1I believe gizmodo said it was going to be DRM free, but I don't know about that since it is a subscription service.

    http://gizmodo.com/5291386/virgin-to-offer-unlimit ...
  • terrya64, on 06/15/2009, -0/+1I'll stick with my $50.00 a year unlimited MP3Fiesta plan.
  • contrex, on 06/15/2009, -1/+2"like 10 songs" - is that different from "10 songs"?
  • inactive, on 07/13/2009, -0/+1No, it won't... It will get bent and mixed up instead...
    http://www.capitalexhibits.com/
  • Riccallo, on 06/16/2009, -0/+1Not me. If I try downloading anything between the hours of 3pm and midnight I can't. I'm aware that this is 'peak time' but then again I am paying for a 16mb connection, sometimes I even struggle to load webpages duing these hours. That's simply unacceptable.

    As someone else has already said, ISPs on one hand complain about the Iplayer and other download services for clogging their network and then on the other hand launch stuff like this. They can't have it both ways. I fail to see how if I am giving them my money it's not their responsibility to upgrade their network so that it CAN handle Iplayer downloads. Afterall these services are going to become more and more common as time goes on, just bite the bullet, stop bitching and upgrade the cables so that I can go on the internet during normal hours as opposed to midnight to 5am.

  • AtanasNenov, on 06/16/2009, -0/+1and why would anyone pay a fee for this "service" when they can download anything they want for free?
  • bdbr, on 06/15/2009, -0/+1"Sony/BMG is defunked"

    Does that mean they sold off their R&B division?
  • jcrash, on 06/16/2009, -0/+1From the Yahoo Article :All of the MP3 downloads will be DRM-free, which means consumers will be able to play them indefinitely on whatever device they choose.
  • jasonrybka, on 06/15/2009, -6/+6Finally. Well done Virgin Media. This is the way forward. This is the ONLY way to combat piracy. ...so long as the subscription fee isn't too high.
  • inactive, on 06/15/2009, -4/+4If, its only UMG, then its not going to work. They need all labels on board.
  • TaffeLewis, on 06/15/2009, -0/+0I wouldnt say that. I am excited about it because if anything this will only make it easier to find what you are looking for on the torrent sites. Not that I would do something like that...but you know, excited for the people who do.
  • csm888, on 06/15/2009, -1/+1"No customers will be permanently disconnected and the process will not depend on network monitoring or interception of customer traffic by Virgin Media.” - perhaps they have a crystal ball, or maybe they will leave the monitoring to a third party, which will be totally unanswerable and unaccountable.
  • Pigeon, on 06/15/2009, -4/+31. Sell unlimited internet at speeds you do not have the infrastructure for.
    2. Cap people when they stress your infrastructure because you fail.
    3. Announce "Unlimited music", this COULD be a sign of infrastructure updates.

    ... Now... do you really think 4 and 5 will look like this:

    4. Allow people to use their paid for connections at full speed for more than 20 mins without any caps!
    5. Allow unlimited music service downloads.

    It will probably look like this:

    4. Keep capping customers on normal internet connections, after all they just want to read email/look at stupid videos right? They can't be doing something that important or useful.
    5. Allow unlimited downloads on the music service because we are now in the music industries pocket and their traffic will have oh so much more priority than that from normal customers.
  • Pigeon, on 06/15/2009, -3/+1How about they fix their infrastructure first and offer actual unlimited fast internet like they advertise first to customers that don't pirate? I use torrents all the time, for WORK.
  • Pigeon, on 06/15/2009, -3/+1So what about those of use who bought a "2mb connection" to, you know, actually spend most of the time using that 2mb connection @ 2mb. Virgin the "Unlimited super fast internet... if you don't actually use it for more than 10 minutes" company.

    How about fixing infrastructure before sucking the music industries dick?
  • LokitheComplex, on 06/15/2009, -6/+3spotify for the win
  • x00x, on 06/15/2009, -7/+2Yawwwwwwn.
  • GQCarrick, on 06/15/2009, -7/+2Nothing to see here folks, keep moving.....
  • WatchDragon, on 06/15/2009, -6/+0Wait what? isn't UMG against people this kind of stuff?
  • amorrise, on 06/15/2009, -8/+1Will it blend?
  • amorrise, on 06/15/2009, -10/+2I dugg it, you father dugg it, you sister records it every night on the VCR

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