See ‘Three-Strikes’ Off Anti-Piracy Agenda In Spain

All good points. And I agree with you on the end of the DRM era, though I do think that the labels move so slowly that we’d better not order cake and ice cream yet. My feeling is that:

1. It’s way too late in coming.

2. The labels think their content is worth more than it really is.

3. It’s all about search and discovery.

I think that we probably would basically agree on those points. Of course I’m jaded and cynical from having been in the trenches for so long. But like I said before, this is far from a slam dunk. And as we both know, you can never fully trust a record label.

I agree that £10 is probably the limit and, ultimately, even better if it can be bundled in with other stuff which I’m sure it will be. I am a Virgin customer and know very well how cleverly they structure these bundles to tempt you to go for the bigger package.

As for the policing bit, I am pretty convinced that Virgin won’t be doing the policing. I believe this is all down to the rightsowners. Virgin simply has to respond to the rightsowners’ notifications. There was a plan to introduce DPI but that was because they were looking at allowing users to carry on using their existing file sharing services (the Playlouder model) so Virgin would have been doing the monitoring anyway. But the whole DPI aspect made them understandably nervous and it just didn’t work well. You’re certainly right to highlight the point that cosnumers don’t like the idea of ISPs ’sniffing’ around their content – but neither do ISPs. More fundamentally though labels, particularly Universal, were never going to allow users to carry on using existing file sharing services. I’m not surprised either. That seems like a much more complicated way of doing things which requires all sorts of content identification of unlicensed stuff and your own licensed stuff which seems totally unnecessary when you could simply give them the MP3s via a platform you control, as they now plan to do.

Your point about forcing other services to use DRM was not what I was thinking of when I read your comment. And that is an interesting point. But that’s another reason why this is deal so significant in my view as effectively it spells the end of DRM on all digital music. There’s talk of Nokia’s CwM getting rid of the DRM on that service and I suspect all the other ‘rental’ models will follow, such that ultimately rental will only be about accessing streaming music – like Spotify – while everything else will be permanently owned with no DRM.

I do think this deal is hugely significant. To me it marks the end of a phase in the digital music business: the end of DRM, the point at which it has been accepted that digital music has become almost totally commoditised, completely unlimited music, as much as you can eat to keep forever, there’s really not much further you can go with these kinds of models. So I think the next phase will be much more about everything that you can do around managing the music, sharing, playlists, users becoming radio stations etc.

Better stop now – I need some breakfast!

Thanks for the clarifications.

Firstly, in regard to pricing, I spoke to several people both here and in the UK and everyone is under the impression that it currently is priced just for UMG content and that it will go up as other majors sign on. If that is in fact incorrect, then I do apologize. But it is a bit unclear nonetheless and if you are correct about the pricing it does change my perception somewhat. But not entirely. It would certainly have a better chance of adoption. The reality is that for a subscription to fully work it must be under 10 GBP. Probably even less.

Regarding the policing, once again someone in the UK who is somewhat familiar with the deal from UMG’s end gave me this information. And I do understand the progressive responses that you outline are part of the strategy. But it still doesn’t negate the fact that Virgin will be a police force for the music industry which, in my mind, would ultimately tend to turn off customers. And is it known just how far Virgin has agreed to go with their policing technology? Just the simple idea that you’re being watched is slightly discomforting. And I would imagine that it is more so in the UK and Europe as users, and governments I might add, have historically been very sensitive to privacy issues. Once again, if I am wrong on this as well, I do apologize, but may I also refer you to Peter Kafka’s post yesterday in ATD (that I quote in my post) about how US ISP’s are dealing with this strategy.

And no, I confess to not reading the entire Carter Report. I merely read the accounts published by the BBC. And I may have awkwardly worded that particular passage. You’re certainly right about the fact that the UK government wants to encourage these new models. I thought that I had reinforced that when I said that Virgin was currying favor with the government as well as the music industry. And although the EU has a long history of anti-competitive action, I do realize that they are looking seriously at new ISP strategies to fight piracy. I think that the pressure is now on these governments to do something about piracy. I do, however, think that this kind of deal could raise some issues with the existing services in Europe and the UK as far as anti-competition goes. For instance, why are other subscription services required to use DRM and not Virgin Media? I was wrong in placing that sentence in that paragraph, as I had intended to for it to refer to the privacy issues. If I was wrong on both accounts, then I do apologize.

Thanks very much for taking the time to comment and I appreciate your thoughts and corrections.