Virgin and Universal Strike Download Deal

So, all those people, (the record industry, deems such "people" as users of Napster, Limewire, Kazaa, and other P2P's, etc, to download music illegally online-- which are cutting into the Label's & RIAA's paychecks.), that got sued by the RIAA for downloading music, now have a legal option to download.

"U.K. telco and cable TV company Virgin Media has partnered with Universal Music on an unlimited download service described as a "world first" in that users will be able to keep all the MP3 downloads forever." Read More at Sky News.com>>

Basically, Virgin Media would enable their customers to enjoy all the musical content from Universal Music; Which artists include Amy Winehouse, U2, Elton John, the Rolling Stones, Duffy, the Sugababes and James Morrison.

For a monthly subscription, still to be announced, the unlimited music download service will allow Virgin Media's broadband customers to stream and download as many songs and albums as they like from Universal's catalog. Users can listen to the tracks on any iPod, MP3 player, mobile phone or PC and keep them forever. Read at Billboard .com More>>


What's cool with this, is now, finally, you can get all your music, videos, and potential new media, from your favorite artist. Your Ipod, DVR, Digital TV, Laptop, PDA ect (As long as it's from Universal Music.-- So, you could get ALL the Elton John you could handle… because who can't get enough listens to Candle in the Wind.) I digress… before you couldn't get all you music from one source, the closest currently would be iTunes, but not for one monthly fee, and not on multiple platforms.

This is the beginning of music as a commodity, and not as a product. And the bonus, the record labels and artists keep their precious copyrights, and the user has access to all their fave bands content. Now if all the other Music distributors would do the same. You be able to "share" your music without repercussion. Which how it should be.

Pretty interesting stuff, and this will be a pretty big change for Music fans.

~G

For further reads on this subject, check out this book:

The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution