Ubuntu selling music?

[sudoer541]

OMG!!! I was shocked when I read this (http://www.stefanoforenza.com/ubuntu-one-music-store/)! Good news!!!

[kostkon]

Interesting...

[Sealbhach]

The DRM issue could scupper the whole thing.

.

[kostkon]

The DRM issue could scupper the whole thing.

.
What DRM? Now most shops sell music without any DRM. Amazon, iTunes, Play.com, etc etc.

[benj1]

not realy enough details at this moment, it could either be linux's and free software's answer to itunes. or a crappy locked down, DRMed bog standard music store.

[ElSlunko]

Hopefully they won't fall into a DRM mess, but I have a feeling they won't. It's pretty neat to see these things planned out. It's like watching Ubuntu slowly gain parts to form one uniform and neat OS. Transformer like, even.

[hoppipolla]

a very, very, very, very cool idea! This is exactly the kind of thing they need to do to make Ubuntu seem more cool and competitive, and attractive to day-to-day users! Godspeed Canonical! :)

[Bölvaður]

it will be interesting if we will hear from this again. Im not going to be expecting this to arrive any day soon. But it would be very cool thing if something happens.

[sudoer541]

who cares about DRM no big deal.

[Exodist]

The DRM issue could scupper the whole thing.

.

+1

I dont do DRM.
I rather pay 20bucks for a CD without DRM then 2bucks for the album in MP3 for with DRM.

Its the whole principle issue.

[Exodist]

who cares about DRM no big deal.
You dont care that someone else has control over how you use your own music you paid for?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management

[Sealbhach]

What DRM? Now most shops sell music without any DRM. Amazon, iTunes, Play.com, etc etc.

That's good.

Somehow i don't think sabdfl would entertain the idea of DRM'ed music in any way shape or form whatsover. I was thinking the music distributors would be unwilling to take part without DRM... but as you say that may not be a problem.

.

[sudoer541]

You dont care that someone else has control over how you use your own music you paid for?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management
nope

[Chronon]

who cares about DRM no big deal.

-1

I care. I care a lot. If I purchase music I would like to be able to reproduce it on any device that I own. DRM should really stand for Digital Restrictions Management.

[koleoptero]

If they make this happen, it will be the first music store I'll buy music from. I've avoided all others, but buying my favorite music AND supporting my favorite OS (by supporting Canonical I mean, since they must be making some sort of profit out of this) seems a good thing to do.

[Praxicoide]

A .ogg music store (with music people know about). Sounds good.

I can't imagine this having DRM when all the other venues are moving away from it.

[Muppeteer]

Yet more proof that Ubuntu is simply another business venture for Mr. Shuttleworth.

[RiceMonster]

Yet more proof that Ubuntu is simply another business venture for Mr. Shuttleworth.

So what if it is? Do you expect him to just invest millions and leave it at that?

[Sealbhach]

Yet more proof that Ubuntu is simply another business venture for Mr. Shuttleworth.

You say that like it's a bad thing. I don't think it is.

.

[SuperSonic4]

not realy enough details at this moment, it could either be linux's and free software's answer to itunes. or a crappy locked down, DRMed bog standard music store.

You give the impression the that iTunes is not a crappy, locked down, DRM bog standard music store. It might not be DRM but it still sucks.

This is what happens when a businessman takes over, end-users have no power

I might give it a go if it has music in ogg format but I still buy a physical disc

Also RE: DRM (http://xkcd.com/488/)

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/steal_this_comic.png

[brian183]

A .ogg music store (with music people know about). Sounds good.

I can't imagine this having DRM when all the other venues are moving away from it.

I really hope they do it all in .ogg. Maybe even .flac?

[benj1]

Yet more proof that Ubuntu is simply another business venture for Mr. Shuttleworth.

i know what youre saying and also share reservations, i don't have a problem with canonical making money, the problem is, is that canonical and ubuntu don't seem to be clearly demarcated in situations such as this.

A statement from canonical on the grand plan for ubuntu would be helpful.

[Exodist]

nope
So if you paid for the music, then downloaded it.
You listed to it, then decided "Hey I want to play this in my car."
Then when you go to put the music on your iPod you find out, hey I cant use it now. It only plays on the PC or it will only let you have one copy of each track on one media device at a time. What if you didnt care about that and just put 1000 songs on your IPod and went out on the town only to LOOSE your IPod and all the music you paid for.
If you didnt have DRM managing how you use YOUR music, then you would at least have backups on YOUR PC. But you couldnt, you lost all YOUR music and now YOUR screwed..

):P

[starcannon]

I'll buy music from Canonical instead of Amazon, if its made available.

[starcannon]

Yet more proof that Ubuntu is simply another business venture for Mr. Shuttleworth.
I certainly hope it is; otherwise it will eventually dry up when our benefactor gets tired of using it for a toy.

Here's to much success to Mark Shuttleworth in his Linux venture. His success trickles down to us. I will definitely buy music from Ubuntu One when/if its made available.

[benj1]

You give the impression the that iTunes is not a crappy, locked down, DRM bog standard music store. It might not be DRM but it still sucks.


i was thinking more the the wildly popular, able to get nearly all available tracks aspects of itunes, rather than the locked down apple-y aspects of itunes.

[SuperSonic4]

i was thinking more the the wildly popular, able to get nearly all available tracks aspects of itunes, rather than the locked down apple-y aspects of itunes.

Ah right. Please accept my apologies

I can't see it being as big as amazon though, let alone itunes. I think the main problem is that iTunes and Online Music have become largely synonymous. Amazon helped but only through their background which is why I can see google making a store at some time - especially owning youtube.


On a different point I wonder how long it will take for a "Ultimate" version of ubuntu to come out which carries a price tag

[Praxicoide]

Shuttleworth has said that he sees no business in selling an OS, selling premium features would fall in the same logic.

Anyways, if that happens, a huge portion of users would bolt for something else, probably an Ubuntu fork; something I'm sure they're aware of.

[benj1]

I can't see it being as big as amazon though, let alone itunes. I think the main problem is that iTunes and Online Music have become largely synonymous. Amazon helped but only through their background which is why I can see google making a store at some time - especially owning youtube.

while i suspect you are right, i think it is possible that canonical could come up with something that could dominate linux.
think about it, an open source, open API music shop, ubuntu one and what ever else they add. Offer distributions a share of revenue, which gives them some income. Canonical are one of the few companies with the cash and inclination (perhaps even the reputation) to do this.

[Muppeteer]

Shuttleworth has said that he sees no business in selling an OS, selling premium features would fall in the same logic.

Why do you think they're so hung up on LTS? Following Red Hats example of producing an 'Enterprise' edition for corporate servers. That's the entire goal of Ubuntu. Just like Red Hat have Fedora as a test bed, Canonical will have Ubuntu for that purpose.

[Crunchy the Headcrab]

+1

I dont do DRM.
I rather pay 20bucks for a CD without DRM then 2bucks for the album in MP3 for with DRM.

Its the whole principle issue.
I'd rather pay > 9.99 for an entire cd in mp3 than 15 bucks for a cd that I had to drive to the store and pick up (which also costs money).

Most music stores offer DRM free mp3 at 256kbps or better now.


I'll buy music from Canonical instead of Amazon, if its made available.
Depends on the quality. I currently use Rhapsody for my mp3 purchasing, but if the quality/price was similar I'd definitely buy from Canonical instead.

[Praxicoide]

Why do you think they're so hung up on LTS?

Because many (schools, businesses) depend on a LTS and it's an important niche.

I don't know, we can't get into their heads, and even if we could, we don't know what they'll be thinking a year from now, and even if we did, we don't know what the circumstances will be like then.

It's just too much speculation to be anything productive.

[forrestcupp]

The DRM issue could scupper the whole thing.

.

Yeah. That would be cool if they could port DRM to Linux, wouldn't it? :guitar:

[starcannon]

Shuttleworth has said that he sees no business in selling an OS, selling premium features would fall in the same logic.

Anyways, if that happens, a huge portion of users would bolt for something else, probably an Ubuntu fork; something I'm sure they're aware of.

You mean like everyone bolted when Ubuntu One included by default has a premium pay version?

Nah, I don't think most of us would mind Mark making a few bucks off of his investment. The minority that believes that everything should be free as in beer will still stay, they don't buy support, hats, CDs, T-shirts, Ubuntu One premium space, Software from the Ubuntu Store, or anything of the other commercial things that Canonical already has available.

[Praxicoide]

Extra hosting space is not the same as offering first and second class OSs.

[starcannon]

Extra hosting space is not the same as offering first and second class OSs.
I'm lost somewhere, I was under the impression we were discussing Canonical selling music. Not a tiered OS quality. My bad, disregard previous post.

[Praxicoide]

Yeah sorry.

So anyways, sounds good.

[motang]

If it's tied into Amazon MP3 store, I am so there. But this is very good news indeed for me, as I buy a lot of music on line and this would make it much easier for me!:guitar:

[Frak]

nope
I have to agree. I give full control over my electricity to the power company. I give full control over my internet to my ISP. The reason I do so is because I trust them. If it is viable for them to make sure that a profit is made through DRM, I'll follow the rules they set and I'll be OK. It's a mutual agreement between you and the provider.

[phrostbyte]

Do you honestly think one of the biggest poster child's for the free software desktop is going to DRM, when Apple doesn't even use it anymore? [-X

[[h2o]]

Shuttleworth has said that he sees no business in selling an OS, selling premium features would fall in the same logic.

Anyways, if that happens, a huge portion of users would bolt for something else, probably an Ubuntu fork; something I'm sure they're aware of.

Why on Earth would that happen? If you change OS just because the people who spend money on it decide to provide its customers with an optional premium service, aren't you just a bit...odd?
Tell me, what other company around is pumping money into Liunx or other Open Source products without having any kind of business plan to make money from it?

[themusicalduck]

It's been confirmed as happening according to here - http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2009/11/ubuntu-music-store-lucid.html

Looks pretty good :) Although I already use Amazon and their downloader to buy music. The article speculates that 7digital is the provider of music. I remember getting put off them before because they had DRM tracks. (maybe they don't anymore?)

[ZankerH]

Will the store be open source ? Being part of Ubuntu One, I’d say no, not fully.

Oh well, thanks for trying. I tolerate proprietary software where it's deemed necessary in a free of charge software distribution, but this is an outright attempt by Canonical to become just another large proprietary software corporation. I say GNU/Linux is soiled by enough proprietary crap as it is.

[Frak]

I say GNU/Linux is soiled by enough proprietary crap as it is.

lol

[gnomeuser]

I would love to have a properly integrated music store in my beloved Banshee. Like Magnatune I would love unlimited streaming (with "ads"), the ability to buy in any format I desire (in my case FLAC) and pay what I like with a suitable minimum naturally. The only thing Magnatune so far as failed to offer me is good integration of the buying to importing steps. I want to hit "buy", have it remember my default preferences for formats, then download the tunes and add them to my library. And absolutely no DRM, I have seen this screw over a friend of mine who bought thousands of dollars worth of.. adult entertainment video material, when he reinstalled Windows and forgot to back up his certificate it was all lost with no way to reacquire it.

[themusicalduck]

I'm so glad I didn't buy into the whole iTunes thing. Seeing as if I had, then I wouldn't be able to use Ubuntu (or any music software other than iTunes) or use my Nokia phone as an mp3 player (I think I couldn't anyway..)

It's probably already been discussed in this thread, but I though iTunes stopped DRM ages ago? Yet my flatmate who buys all his stuff from iTunes has to authorise everything he plays his music on.

[xuCGC002]

Integrate Amazon MP3 with Rhythmbox. Somehow. :-/

[alphaniner]

I have to agree. I give full control over my electricity to the power company. I give full control over my internet to my ISP.

I must be missing the punchline. You have an agreement with them that boils down to you pay, they provide. They have no control over how you use what you pay for. Unless you've got one of those remote controlled thermostats or something.


blah blah people making money blah blah

Canonical has promised they will never charge for different versions of the OS. Beyond that, I wish them profit and prosperity in all their endeavours.

[Keyper7]

I would love to have a properly integrated music store in my beloved Banshee. Like Magnatune I would love unlimited streaming (with "ads"), the ability to buy in any format I desire (in my case FLAC) and pay what I like with a suitable minimum naturally. The only thing Magnatune so far as failed to offer me is good integration of the buying to importing steps. I want to hit "buy", have it remember my default preferences for formats, then download the tunes and add them to my library. And absolutely no DRM, I have seen this screw over a friend of mine who bought thousands of dollars worth of.. adult entertainment video material, when he reinstalled Windows and forgot to back up his certificate it was all lost with no way to reacquire it.

"A friend of mine"... yeah, right. :)

On a more serious note, what would be the complexity of implementing such a thing? Sounds like a lot of work to be milestoned for Lucid. Furthermore, how are the plans of replacing Rhythmbox by Banshee? Wouldn't this influence things a little bit in this sense? (ex: both players have online store extensions already, but Mono seems like a better platform to maintain the thing in the long run, IMO)

And I promise I'll personally decapitate the first one who tries to turn this into an anti-Mono-patents discussion.

[Keyper7]

Integrate Amazon MP3 with Rhythmbox. Somehow. :-/

I agree it would be awesome. But because of the whole MP3 patent mess, that would leave Ubuntu with a store that could not be used by default. That doesn't sound good.

[Regenweald]

So what if it is? Do you expect him to just invest millions and leave it at that?

Makes sense to the 'Free as in Leech' crowd ;)

[Frak]

makes sense to the 'free as in leech' crowd ;)
+1

[Praxicoide]

;8333311']Why on Earth would that happen? If you change OS just because the people who spend money on it decide to provide its customers with an optional premium service, aren't you just a bit...odd?

No. It only makes sense to go to another distro that offers software without restrictions. If someone tries to tell me I can't have certain features because I need a home premium package or whatever, in Linux, that person is trying to sell me snake oil.

I'm not talking about a service here, notice I said OS, on the topic of the Ubuntu promise.


Tell me, what other company around is pumping money into Liunx or other Open Source products without having any kind of business plan to make money from it?

It seems like they do have a plan, one that doesn't involve applying closed-source models on open source software (yes, I know Canonical is not squeaky clean here, but their platform is mainly open source).

[Praxicoide]

Canonical has promised they will never charge for different versions of the OS. Beyond that, I wish them profit and prosperity in all their endeavours.

Exactly. Sorry for derrailing the thread. I think this service is an excellent idea.

[wojox]

Ran across a more recent update today Ubuntu One Music Store (http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/11/17/canonical-working-on-an-itunes-like-music-store-for-ubuntu/)

Time to start turning a profit?

[openuniverse]

.

[gnomeuser]

Canonical has traditionally supported the creative commons, I would be surprised if they didn't use those connections to forge some alliances.

[Toadinator]

I really hope they do it all in .ogg. Maybe even .flac?

Both? That would be rad! OR, when you buy something on the store you could re-download it at any time, and pick from OGA or FLAC? And maybe they could sell Speex audiobooks... ooh, fantasizing about this is making me all nervous. I hope they do a good job, whatever they do ^_^.

[Nerd King]

I would love to have a properly integrated music store in my beloved Banshee. Like Magnatune I would love unlimited streaming (with "ads"), the ability to buy in any format I desire (in my case FLAC) and pay what I like with a suitable minimum naturally. The only thing Magnatune so far as failed to offer me is good integration of the buying to importing steps. I want to hit "buy", have it remember my default preferences for formats, then download the tunes and add them to my library. And absolutely no DRM, I have seen this screw over a friend of mine who bought thousands of dollars worth of.. adult entertainment video material, when he reinstalled Windows and forgot to back up his certificate it was all lost with no way to reacquire it.
Your 'friend'? ;)

[frustphil]

Your 'friend'? ;)
:guitar::guitar:

[cascade9]

I really hope they do it all in .ogg. Maybe even .flac?

I would have a look, if it let you buy .flac. Or even wavpack (but never, ever, .ape, wma 'lossless' or ALAC) Ogg vorbis, while not bad, in the end is just another lossy codec, and I wont pay money for lossy. Even high bitrate lossy.

Edit- correct my if I'm worng, but isnt apple iTunes just giving people the option of buying DRM free? AFAIK, DRM AAC .m4a is still offered, and will be for the forseeable future?

[SuperSonic4]

I'd rather pay > 9.99 for an entire cd in mp3 than 15 bucks for a cd that I had to drive to the store and pick up (which also costs money).

Most music stores offer DRM free mp3 at 256kbps or better now.


Depends on the quality. I currently use Rhapsody for my mp3 purchasing, but if the quality/price was similar I'd definitely buy from Canonical instead.

Yeah, because you can't order physical CDs over the internet....
Amazon has CDs for largely the same price as the download and it is only £5 to qualify for free delivery. The biggest difference is in time. Instead of waiting 3 days for a CD you get it in an hour at most.


I would love to have a properly integrated music store in my beloved Banshee. Like Magnatune I would love unlimited streaming (with "ads"), the ability to buy in any format I desire (in my case FLAC) and pay what I like with a suitable minimum naturally.

What I like is that with a physical CD you can rip different tracks to different formats. For example on United Abominations I can rip Sleepwalker to flac and the rest to ogg



Canonical has promised they will never charge for different versions of the OS. Beyond that, I wish them profit and prosperity in all their endeavours.

A for-profit company would never renege on a promise...

[dragos240]

Interesting. It's strange. But there's nothing wrong with it.

[alphaniner]

Canonical has promised they will never charge for different versions of the OS. Beyond that, I wish them profit and prosperity in all their endeavours.A for-profit company would never renege on a promise...

Yeah, I worded that poorly. What I meant was that they never made any promises to not try to make money. So we have no basis to feel betrayed when they do, provided they don't renege on the promise to keep the OS free.

[zekopeko]

Did anyone notice that it's in the same sentence as Ubuntu One?

The cool thing would be to make Ubuntu One your online music storage locker. You buy stuff and it's automatically available in U1 web interface for you do listen to (either by using HTML5 audio tag or Flash) or plug an iPod and have it download songs from the internet and put them on the iPod.

Mix that with streaming service similar to Last.fm or Grooveshark and you have something truly awesome.
You wouldn't even need a copy on your computer since you can listen to your music on any computer that has a web browser.

[[h2o]]

No. It only makes sense to go to another distro that offers software without restrictions. If someone tries to tell me I can't have certain features because I need a home premium package or whatever, in Linux, that person is trying to sell me snake oil.

I'm not talking about a service here, notice I said OS, on the topic of the Ubuntu promise.
How is the possibility of buying music a restriction? :confused:

[nothingspecial]

Only flac. If they offer flac, I`ll buy.

I will not buy ogg or mp3. I`d rather have the cd. Infact, I`d rather have the vinyl with the right to download the flac.

[cascade9]

Did anyone notice that it's in the same sentence as Ubuntu One?

The cool thing would be to make Ubuntu One your online music storage locker. You buy stuff and it's automatically available in U1 web interface for you do listen to (either by using HTML5 audio tag or Flash) or plug an iPod and have it download songs from the internet and put them on the iPod.

Mix that with streaming service similar to Last.fm or Grooveshark and you have something truly awesome.
You wouldn't even need a copy on your computer since you can listen to your music on any computer that has a web browser.

That might work in unlimited bandwidth/no quota world, but here (australia) virtually every internet conenction is capped. There are 'unlimited' connections around, but at 512K/256K up/down, its not that huge, even at max dl rate 24 hrs a day.

As for lastfm, bah. Thanks to the CBS buyout I dont trust them anymore, and thanks to subscription only to listen to crappy quality streaming I just dont use it anymore. Subscription wouldnt be that bad, but since lastFM decided that its only UK, US and Germany that dont have to pay, I'm more than a little put out at them.

[Praxicoide]

;8352844']How is the possibility of buying music a restriction? :confused:


You're confused because you actually haven't read the thread.

[[h2o]]

You're confused because you actually haven't read the thread.
I believe I have, so please enlighten me of what I must obviously have missed. Because I still can't figure out why some people are so upset over this, or what you meant with your previous post.

[Praxicoide]

It's right there:



I can't see it being as big as amazon though, let alone itunes. I think the main problem is that iTunes and Online Music have become largely synonymous. Amazon helped but only through their background which is why I can see google making a store at some time - especially owning youtube.


On a different point I wonder how long it will take for a "Ultimate" version of ubuntu to come out which carries a price tag

The replies that followed were in relation to this. NOT the music service, which almost everyone here seems to support.

My last reply to you explictly says that I'm talking about a premium OS, not any service, and if you read the thread then you would have noticed somebody else also got confused and then corrected himself:


I'm lost somewhere, I was under the impression we were discussing Canonical selling music. Not a tiered OS quality. My bad, disregard previous post.

You would have also noticed this:


Exactly. Sorry for derrailing the thread. I think this service is an excellent idea.

[[h2o]]

It's right there:



The replies that followed were in relation to this. NOT the music service, which almost everyone here seems to support.

My last reply to you explictly says that I'm talking about a premium OS, not any service, and if you read the thread then you would have noticed somebody else also got confused and then corrected himself:



You would have also noticed this:

Sorry! I somehow must have missed those posts.

[Praxicoide]

Sure, no problem.

[PryGuy]

Wow! Amazing news! ;)

[indiandruid]

Awesome news. Fantastic.