Echo, mp3s for sale...

[ReTroAcTive]

Six of the largest music retailers plan to announce on Monday that they are joining forces to sell music that can be downloaded from the Web.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/27/business/media/27TUNE.html?ex=1044334800&en=2060af520a2451d6&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

[Neo Neko]

Interesting. We shall have to wait and see how it fairs. But I am quite sure without hearing any of their over all buisiness strategy that they are going to make alot of basic mistakes that could quite possibly kill them before they get started. I saw no mention of what format they will be selling the music in. But for .99 cents it better be a lossless format. I suspect though they will try to pawn off 128Kbps MP3 or 64Kbps WMA. Next they will most likely try to enforce some DRM scheme. If they expect to win any converts it is most important they do not persue DRM. Why would I buy downloadable coppies that I can not copy or transcode when for a bit more I could get a CD I can. Tack onto that the possibility of lossy formats and it is a double negative whammy. I hope they beat my expectations. Does anyone have any more info?

[ReTroAcTive]

i just hope they do it right and get good quality mp3s. i just cant see paying anything for a 128bps mp3, they are crap. if i was going to pay for a mp3 ide want it to be at least 320. when i encode mp3s 192 is the lowest rate ill go, but if they want me to pay for it 320 is what ide want.

[midiguy]

I bet they will use the wma format at 128 kbps and lower. watch billie jump on the bandwaggon!

[Neo Neko]

/me shivvers