Michael Robertson, the mogul behind Linspire, ajaxLaunch and formerly MP3.com, has announced that his MP3tunes.com is now offering 1GB of free online storage for your music files. The service, called Oboe, is a "music locker" that you can upload your files to on Windows, Mac, or Linux, and then listen to them via unlimited streaming wherever you are via your web browser, or sync your music collection on all of your computers and devices. In the announcement on his blog, Robertson takes Steve Jobs to task for an interview in 2002 in which he said, "If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own," a proclamation some say Apple itself has ignored. Robertson says his goal is "to amass a large number of music lockers to compel electronics companies to build devices that will work with this open system--so you're always in control of your music." The company has also released an open API so developers can build their devices and software to sync with MP3tunes.Though some of Robertson's previous ventures--all of ajaxLaunch, for example--have seemed a bit half-baked, I really like the sound of this, and I hope he achieves his goal. Robertson is, of course, chiefly concerned with turning a profit, so there are different tiers of service. The Free service lets you store up to 1,000 songs with a 1GB limit (so.. more like 300-some songs), a maximum of 20MB per son, and syncing for three computers. The Basic service, which will run you $19.95 per year, ups the limit to 2GB/2,000 songs, 5 PCs, and 20 playlists, and the Premium service--$39.95 per year--gives you unlimited storage, unlimited machines to sync with, and unlimited playlists, and ups the per-song limit to 40MB. Though streaming is limited to MP3, you can also back up your Windows Media and iTunes music, though their DRM will remain unchanged.
[Via GigaOM]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-30-2006 @ 7:10PM
David R said...
Each user uploading their own songs--and the server storing multiple copies--is teh stupid. There should just be one master copy of a song on the service, and each user just validates that they have a license for it through some sort of DRM-like mechanism which only validates rights instead of including an entire encrypted copy of the song. But if you're going to do that, then the master service should just be the one that 'sold' you the right to play it, so this kind of functionality should just be wrapped into online music stores.
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8-30-2006 @ 9:29PM
Qwfwq said...
@David R
IMP3Tunes approach makes perfect sense to me. What you're thinking is more on the line of subscription music services like Napster To Go, while MP3Tunes serves as a online repository to backup personal music collections and have it available anywhere. One can upload music bought from online providers or ripped from the personal CD collection and listen to it on any computer either by streaming it through their web-based music player, iTunes or Winamp, by downloading individual track or by syncing playlists or the whole collection to a computer.
Personal music colection are usually idiosyncratic, meaning different file formats, bitrates and id3 tags which makes the approach you describe nearly impossible to implement for a service of this kind.
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8-31-2006 @ 12:53AM
kbiel said...
>>Each user uploading their own songs--and the server storing multiple copies--is teh stupid. There should just be one master copy of a song on the service
I agree with you that it's stupid to keep multiple copies on the server, but it's not like they haven't tried that before (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp3.com#My.MP3.com). They were nearly sued out of existence by the recording industry since the copy given to their customers were not made from the customer's original media.
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8-31-2006 @ 12:08PM
gavin said...
I remember that as well kbiel, it was the ibeam service which is much like David R thinks is the way to go, but a technicality in the law states that the owner of the music rip from their own source. Seems like Roberson it still stuck on the idea, the presentation is quite impressive. I'm sure this time they've got the lawyers to go through it with a fine comb for any potential legal pitfalls well you'd hope they would, wouldn't you. You've got to admire the guys vision
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8-31-2006 @ 10:28PM
submachine said...
Streamjack did this too....about three years ago - http://www.streamjack.com/
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