Virgin Media’s MP3 subscription service
Executive summary here, from Rory Cellan-Jones at the BBC; deeper overview over at PaidContent.
Bullet points:—
It’s real MP3s, though no details of bitrate, or whether AAC will be available (apparently there are still people who have devices who can’t play MPEG 4 audio—weird but true).
The “top package” will cost “less than the price of two albums”. £15pcm?
Universal Music is the only player in this particular game at the moment. Virgin are apparently “negotiating” with other labels.
No launch date as yet.
Virgin will suspend accounts for anything from “a few minutes to a few hours” on the say-so of the record industry’s spies.
No details of appeals process, compensation for those incorrectly suspended, whether customers will have to agree to new contracts to allow for it to happen.
No details on monetary split with respect to subscription revenues.
Strikes me that Universal is getting two things it really wants: the ability to suspend the Internet access of customers and a new paid-for distribution channel. I wonder if this will do enough favours for Virgin as to be worth it.
