Leaked Docs Show UK ISP BT Plans Music Service 84
An anonymous reader submits word of a leaked document that indicates that British Telecom "has plans to launch a new music download service which it hopes will steer users away from P2P file sharing . The introduction of the new service is aimed at giving its customers an alternative to file sharing and is already in the works with talks ongoing between the ISP and music labels such as Universal and EMI. When launched 'in the near future' the service is expected to offer BT's 5.5 million customers completely free music downloads for an initial period of 6-9 months after which an undecided monthly subscription fee will be charged for continued access to the service. The finer details of how the service will look and function is unknown at this stage, but will play a huge part in how successful (if at all) the service will be. Services like Spotify already exist and are hugely popular in the UK meaning BT will have to go the extra mile to convince users they have a service worth using."
The Cynical Take.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's hope they don't simply find it easier to degrade the quality of competing services. I get nervous (and cynical) when my ISP wants to sell me anything other than a pipe for bits.
Re:Sign me up! (Score:2, Insightful)
Perhaps you've not heard - they stopped making music ten years ago. These days its American Idol-type garbage and lawsuits that pay the bills
Re:The Cynical Take.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow... dinosaurs.
Theres alot of people out there who weren't around when these bands were making their music, like me, who are discovering it for the first time and don't have the luxury, or the inclination, to go out and buy their entire back catalogue. The benifits of Spotify and probably BTs new one, is that I can listen to music from artists I like that I haven't heard before because it's either too rare, or I'm cautious about actually buying because I don't know what it's like.
Just because you don't like them, and just because they've not released anything lately, doesn't mean they're worthless.