James Delahunty
24 Aug 2005 8:47
Sony BMG has made history in the digital music world by teaming up with Playlouder MSP to make its music catalog available online. Subscribers can exchange licensed music in any birate they want freely. A portion of the subscription fees will be divided among Sony and other artists. Playlouder MSP is to supply the broadband connection itself. This is the same basic idea as used by radio where the revenue generated compensates the artists.
"PLMSP's unique position as the world's only licensed music ISP allows it to control the flow of music files over its network ensuring that all file-sharing traffic stays within its 'walled-garden'," the company said in a statement. "By controlling the network on which the music flows, PLMSP is able to effectively and accurately track and monitor the distribution of digital music through a sophisticated method of audio fingerprinting and return the appropriate share of revenues back to the rights owners."
To battle against possible leakage, PLMSP will deploy watermarks and "deep packet searches" software on the network. "We aim to prevent close to 100% of P2P traffic from going outside the MSP 'walled garden'", said Paul Sanders in an FAQ. More deals will be unveiled soon by PLMSP. The service will go live in the UK only next month, but similar services such as Shawn Fanning's Snocap will launch soon also. If such a service had become available after the original Napster shut down then potentially millions of dollars could have been made by rights holders and artists.
Source:
The Register