Virgin Media drops P2P plan

Virgin Media has announced that it will not progress plans to roll out a legal P2P music service. Unsurprising really, given that the music industry is only just getting to grips with DRM disappearing and so is only allowing small experiments such as the Isle Of Man’s plans for a music tax funding unlimited downloads.

The pay once download forever idea is not a new one and has already appeared in a somewhat mutated format in the shape of Nokia’s Comes With Music. It still remains a possibility if music owners can come to terms with the idea that music is a service proposition much like electricity or water, then the real opportunities will open up for providers and music owners alike.

Nokia looks to expand Comes With Music

Nokia is keeping the rollout pace of its Comes With Music initiative in high gear with announcements coming out of Midem about plans for the Far East, Australia, the US and beyond.

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Sticks with music

Nokia has finally unveiled its Comes With Music proposition offering up to 5 million songs for free to folks who buy the new range of handsets. The N95 and N96 will also be added to the range, with handsets costing from £130.

Though not matching the 8 million songs on offer from iTunes, it’s a novel attempt at a new marketing ploy and the labels are happy as they get a cut. The loser in all this? Guess who? Yup, the muggins who buy the phones, download the music and are then tied into those handsets and their computer forever more. Well, if they want to keep their music I mean.

The whole thing feels more like another step down the road but certainly not the final step as anything involving DRM, platform dependency simply cannot last.