The decently popular website Play.com has begun offering high quality, DRM-free MP3 music downloads for the relatively low price of 65p in the UK, and the company says it will start with about one million tracks from EMI and indie labels.
The files, which will be 320kbps, should be playable on most if not all media devices on the market, due to its MP3 format. Apple already offers EMI tracks DRM-free as well but in AAC format which is mainly supported by its iPod line. The price is also cheaper and a Play.com spokesperson has said that “we’re going to be cheaper than [Apple's] iTunes. Whatever price iTunes goes down to, we’ll be looking to go lower.”
In a recent decision, the EU has told Apple it must standardize its prices across Europe and so the tracks are expected to drop from its high 79p current price.
Play.com should also see competition from Amazon MP3 which already undercuts Apple’s track prices and offers DRM-free music from all major labels. So far Amazon MP3 is only in the US but it will hit the UK later this year.
The company says it is talking to the other major labels, “and if one or more had been quicker we might have held off the launch. We think that within the year, the others will be on board.”
Result for: high quality
In commemoration of its upcoming Nine Inch Nails: Lights in the Sky tour, the band has released a nice five-track EP on its website with songs from itself and four other bands which are on the tour.
According to the NIN website, the songs are all “high quality, DRM-free, fully-tagged MP3 files” and each download will even come with “cover art and a pack of digital extras.”
The five track EP includes the following songs:
1. a place to bury strangers - “to fix the gash in your head”
2. does it offend you, yeah? - “we are rockstars”
3. crystal castles - “crimewave (crystal castles vs HEALTH)”
4. deerhunter - “like new”
5. nine inch nails - “echoplex”
For those interested in picking up the free EP, all you need to do is sign up here and provide a working email address. You will then be emailed a download code for the EP and digital extras.
In early May, the band was applauded for fighting back against the record companies and giving away part of its album “Ghosts I-IV” for free in better-than-CD quality. The band also offered the CD in physical format and the rest of the CD in digital format for much cheaper prices than most CDs cost today. Their “experiment” is said to have netted $1.6 million USD for the band, with little to no production costs and nothing to pay to the labels.
Result for: high quality
Sling Media has announced the availability of the HD model of its popular Slingbox media hub, dubbed Slingbox PRO-HD and has said it will retail for $300 USD.
The company says the PRO-HD will let users stream “HD content from a home television source, including over the air HD digital signals (ATSC), digital cable channels (Clear QAM), HDTV cable set-top boxes, HDTV satellite receivers, or HD DVR’s, to a laptop or desktop computer in and around the house.”
The stream can also be sent online to your laptop as long as you have SlingPlayer software installed on the system.
The new box uses a technology dubbed SlingStream 2.0 which “adaptively stream high quality television content across virtually any network connection.” The technology supposedly improves audio and video quality.
The SlingPlayer software has been updated as well and will work with XP and Vista. The software “features a live video buffer which lets you pause and rewind a live video stream. Also included is an electronic programming guide (EPG) and the incorporation of Sling Accounts, a single sign-on feature that keeps key personal Slingbox information including Finder IDs, favorite channels and programming guide information.”
