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."
That's a good idea (Score:1)
Then we can share them more privately with trusted friends through ftp or whatever.
Re: (Score:2)
> through ftp or whatever.
or torrents ? It seems like circular logic to me.
Re: (Score:1)
I'm discovering how badly bittorrent sucks. It completely disrupts my network, and the downloads aren't very fast. Could be my ISP, but either way, I have to use something else..
Re: (Score:1)
Is a seven year old DSL modem "ancient"?
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, it is.
Google for bittorrent problems related to your router model and see if you get some hits.
There are some issues with some models of linksys routers in particular.
Other than that: Limit your upstream usage to below 80% of your bandwidth and you should be fine. :)
I can download at 3mb/sec on torrents fine while playing RIFT without lag issues
Re: (Score:1)
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.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
It'd be a shame if anything.. happened... to the QOS for your Spotify account. You can always pay more, just to be sure you get only the finest bits available on the Interwebs.
Re: (Score:2)
Given that Spotify already caches most of the files you download I don't think they are particularly vunerable to changing the QOS for the account.
Re: (Score:1)
YOU can't pay more, at least directly. Spotify has to cough up the dough, then hike their rates to cover the fee [in most industries, this would be known as a "kickback"].
If you could directly pay to get better access to a specific service, then just any tom dick or harry could come up with some great idea that requires a good IP connection, implement it, and then get their customers to also sign up for a 'premium' connection to their service. So, they can slowly build up their business, self-bootstrappin
Re: (Score:3)
All it requires is for them to snag the Beatles, AC/DC, Led Zep, Metallica, Pink Floyd, and all the other big artists that Spotify have failed to get (And I don't mean covers, tribute bands or compilations. You can get a few AC/DC tracks from the Iron Man Movie soundtrack but that's it) and they'll be set.
Re: (Score:2)
> All it requires is for them to snag the Beatles, AC/DC, Led Zep, Metallica, Pink Floyd,
Seriously does anyone actually miss those dinosaurs? The people who enjoy their music already have the LP / CD / DAT / DVD-Audio / Directors Cut / UnCut / Life in Wembley / Re-Union / Retirement editions. And they produce nothing new...
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.
Re: (Score:1)
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.
That's why you download through "alternate means," means that involve pirates and bays. That way, you get an "extended trial version."
Re: (Score:2)
> All it requires is for them to snag the Beatles, AC/DC, Led Zep, Metallica, Pink Floyd,
Seriously does anyone actually miss those dinosaurs? The people who enjoy their music already have the LP / CD / DAT / DVD-Audio / Directors Cut / UnCut / Life in Wembley / Re-Union / Retirement editions. And they produce nothing new...
You didn't mention my 8-track you insensitive clod.
Re: (Score:1)
AC/DC's new album was actually pretty good!
Re: (Score:2)
And they produce nothing new...
So? Do you equate novelty with quality? Mozart and Beethoven haven't written anything new for two hundred years, so they must be crap?
Grow up.
Re: (Score:2)
I think dinosaurs are cool.
Re: (Score:2)
BT already throttle iPlayer and YouTube in the evenings so I'd imagine they would do the same to Spotify as well.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
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.
I don't think they'd dare. An ISP is a lot more dependent on having content than the content providers are on that ISP and lockout is a very powerful tool. The day you visit facebook.com and get a page saying "Your ISP is a retard. Change ISP to get Facebook." is the day they lose half their customers. There was a few attempts at this in Norway around 2006-2007 as online video was taking off, the content providers gave them the finger, the customers complained and as far as I know the idea died there.
Re: (Score:2)
That's a reasonable attitude, the only music download service that's available in Australia, apart from evil Apple's iTunes store, is operated by Telstra (the Australian equivalent of BT) and it's surprisingly good. They haven't got as good a selection of music as i'd like, but you don't have to wrestle with bullshit software to buy from them - you can do the whole thing with a web browser (which is how it should be) so it works fine with Linux.
Re: (Score:2)
oops! should have been a "but" in there between "attitude" and "the only". fucking wine!
Re: (Score:1)
They'll find it pretty easy to identify people using PirateBay, p2p, blog sites and the like, and send them letters informing them of a) copyright laws, and b) their exciting new music download service.
Sign me up! (Score:3)
I'll queue up downloads 24/7 for the first six months, and that should probably take care of any music I, my family, and my friends wanted anyhow.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
When did new music stop interesting you?
Nothing is sadder than calcification of the soul.
Re: (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: (Score:3)
Yeah, cause Elbow, Plan B, Mumford and Sons and Biffy Clyro are all so American Idol it hurts.
Re: (Score:2)
Not to mention Deerhunter, Burial, Die Antwoord, Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden's recent album Jasmine or the recent record by the Hilliard Ensemble of the Bach Motets. They're all so American Idol, too.
There's more new music available today than there ever has been. Despite, no because of filesharing. And the amount of new music that is of high quality is the same it's always been some good, some sucks, and
Re: (Score:2)
Well screw you too, buddy.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'll queue up downloads 24/7 for the first six months, and that should probably take care of any music I, my family, and my friends wanted anyhow.
Assuming you've got a downlink which can sustain 2 Mbps on average (respectable enough for the UK), you could receive over 21 GByte in a single day. Exhausting the available repertory of music might take two or three days, if your choices are indiscriminate, and would not exhaust your ridiculously small usage cap.
More likely, there will be a separate cap imposed on the music downloads, and it won't be large. I suspect the "free" music will be at best 128kbps, and you'll be limited to downloading a few ho
OMG UK ISP BT BBQ TCPIP KVM (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Give them a chance to get their stuff together first. They've got a quarterly puppy-kicking quota to meet before they can worry about little details like shafting the customer.
Re:OMG UK ISP BT BBQ TCPIP KVM (Score:4, Informative)
"UK ISP BT" is pretty unambiguous. The first acronym is known world wide, the second by everyone that uses /., and the third can be inferred by the first two.
Is "US ISP AT&T" also a problem? - but yeah, i'd have worded it differently.
Fighting the same fight (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
There are no publicly-traded ISPs that are not evil, unless you perhaps count Google TiSP.
I bet Google Fiber will be!
Oh no... not again... (Score:1)
I have worked for BT in the past. I can tell you now (and please put me on record here), this will be launched, they will chuck a boatload of cash at it, just to shut it down in 2 years... They have done this SOOO many times on different projects. Most notably was the PC's they sold for a while. They ended up buying them all back because there were so many issues with it. BT should stick to what they are good at. Stop wasting our (and your own) time and money, get the country fibered up (to the premis
Re: (Score:3)
Why are people using BT? (Score:2)
Maybe they could use this to fund a proper broadband service. As of last year (which is when I switched to Be There), their upstream sync rate was 448kbs, irrespective of line capabilities - anybody know if it's changed? Totally pathetic. They had the cheek to tell me when I asked for the Migration Access Code for my switch to BE that I was wrong and that BE had mislead me when they claimed I would get higher speeds with them. Of course, my line is syncing three times faster upstream now as BE offer up
Re: (Score:1)
their upstream sync rate was 448kbs, irrespective of line capabilities - anybody know if it's changed?
The new BT Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) service is being rolled out and it offers upto 10mb upload and 40mb download (subject to your distance from the green cabinet on a street near you rather than your distance from your exchange).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And when is that going to be available? Before Virgin's 100mbs/10mbs service? BT are targeting 40% coverage by summer 2012, so it doesn't seem like I'll be seeing it any time soon. It will still be slower than Virgin.
Re: (Score:1)
Another reason to stick with a small ISP (Score:3)
At least my ISP uses its money to try to ensure that they are never the bottleneck on the circuit, rather than subsidising someone's music downloads...
If it's anything like BTs other services (Score:2)
It will be a steaming pile of crap.
1) They've been trying to bill my firm for a couple of years. They've screwed up the bill each time, and the mailing list of people involved in this rather simple task grew to over 50.
2) We've been quoted 69 days to get a line into an office. That's just the quote. It's now been about 4 months.
3) I tried to pay my final bill for my landline at home, telling them I'd left the country. It turns out they aren't able to send the final bill to other countries. The lady on the p
Re: (Score:2)
The Post Office doesn't do mail redirection overseas either? Seems wise to do that anyway in case something else important that you forgot or weren't expecting gets sent to your old address:
If you don't pay your last bill, will it be on your credit file if/when you return?
Re: (Score:2)
The final bill was only for a few pounds, but the lady on the phone actually said they couldn't make us pay. Also, overseas redirect would cost quite a bit, on a monthly basis. Not really reasonable to ask someone to do when they're not expecting any mail at all.
This Will Fail. (Score:5, Interesting)
Usually, when sitting having a chat, and someone asks us the utterly boorish "my internet seems to be running slow"; One of the first pieces of advice we give to people to speed up their net is to ditch BT broadband. BT's infrastructure is old, poorly designed, and managed on the cheap. Their consumer grade equipment (Home Hub - Business Hub) uses poor quality electronics and software making it almost unusable. (I have yet to meet someone with a working set of "Hub Phones")
Their phone line instillation service is woeful. Younger engineers are poorly paid and badly trained - creating birds nests of redundant wiring inside their junction boxes, degrading an ADSL signal to the point dial-up seems a realistic alternative. Even an experienced engineer is given such a busy schedule they have no choice but to cut corners.
The poorly installed phone line and slow internet service is not what pushes customers over the edge - its the customer service. A phone call to BTs technical support regarding a cable fault will most probably (worked out mathematically from the many service calls I have endured) be routed through to billing - who will tell you that booking another engineer cannot be sent because there is something amiss with their system. They will tell you this without apology - in a tone of voice suggesting it is you'r fault their system does not work.
Of course... BT are always adding value to their products - BT vision for example. An innovative service where you pay BT to stream channels free on digital TV to a set top box (over your internet connection using bandwidth you pay for). Even their own websites suggests that you could get every channel available on free-view, 20Mb download bandwidth (less whatever BT vision uses), with unlimited usage, a Free BT-Vision set top box, and even a £25 Amazon gift certificate. All this for just 40 pounds per month! With an extra £10 per month line rental. And an instillation fee for the BT Vision Box.
Rant over - point is BT could, and most likely will, provide a music service, and most likely will employ traffic shaping. It most likeley be woeful when compared to the likes of spotify or any other current provider. Chances are if you use BT broadband your internet connection will be so poor you wont be able to notice traffic shaping. Only a lunatic would actually buy an internet based service from BT - when they can barely provide an internet service. They obviously have no interest in providing a good quality telephony product, or internet product. Eventually, these sorts of rants will be repeated on /. posted to an article explaining how BT went bankrupt.
Re: (Score:2)
I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of BT incompetence.
Re: (Score:2)
I have one of their home hub phones. It worked for me when I used their service. I still use it for the phone service even though I've switch DSL provider. At this point, the bit about the hub that is really annoying is that there is no way to turn off the 802.11 wireless. I live in a converted 100 year old town house in London (i.e. lots of flats above, below and all along the street) so I see about 15-20 WAPs at any one time... it would be nice to turn it off to reduce interference. In the end I just
Waste of resources (Score:1)
6-9 months (Score:2)
It's been done before (Score:2)
Danish ISP TDC launched its music service "PLAY" three years ago. All subscribers have access to 10+ million songs on their PCs or phones, completely free of charge (subscription costs are the same as before it was launched.
It's be a huge success and widely praised, it wouldn't surprise me if they hit over 500 million downloads by the end of 2011, pretty good for a country of ~6 million.