I wouldn't normally praise an online music vendor for offering DRM files to its users. It is downright irritating to be bound to one or two music players. Music wants to be free (i.e. mp3) and should be playable on whatever player the consumers wants to use. This is my stance - and has been for a long time.
But then I find myself happily using the latest offering from Danish phone company and broadband provider TDC. PLAY is the name of the service that lets TDC-customers download all the music they want from TDC's music store. It's all free of charge and (alas) DRM-encoded.
There are more than a million songs in the vault and the artists are many and varied. From Backstreet Boys to Beatles over Manu Chao to Marilyn Manson. All download-able in CD quality. The site works smoothly with an intuitive and responsive interface.
So, all in all I'm a happy camper. Only catch is the DRM-thingy and the fact that the music will play on your computer or phone only as long as you are a customer with TDC. Still, I see this step from TDC and the record companies as a decisive embrace of a new, more innovative business model. And the good news is that it is spreading. This week Danish phone company Sonofon announced that it will probably launch a similar service in near future.
Comments