Double big news from our good friend Brad Hill: his long anticipated book Digital Songstream is out for your enjoyment and edification, and he has written up one of his patented reviews of the new AOL MusicNet service.

First, his book:

The Digital Songstream is about the liquification of music, transforming it from shelved plastic discs to fluid bits and bytes on the global datanet.

Digital music is not about free music. It is about the liberation of music from obsolete formats and artificial scarcity imposed by an industry that has not embraced new-millennium realities. Digital music is about building your life's soundtrack with unprecedented flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

Neither the book nor the site advocates or instructs in the infringement of copyright. However, both are informed by the unstoppable reality of P2P file-sharing and the historically cyclical effect of new technology on the media industries. Accordingly, issues of copyright and the civil disobedience of music consumers are treated here as part of a big picture. That picture includes the long-term evolution of the media marketplace, the civil liberties of online citizens, the dangers of government regulation, and the sanctity of personal-use copying.

Next, his review of MusicNet:

Review - MusicNet On AOL

BACKGROUND:
In the fall of 2001, MusicNet rolled out its first iteration, bundled into the RealOne subscription service. One of two label-owned online music services (MusicNet is also part-owned by RealNetworks), MusicNet was difficult to evaluate for two reasons. First, because it was just a small part of the broad multimedia offering of RealOne, which includes news, sports, and non-music entertainment products.

The second reason for MusicNet's confusing start was self-inflicted. RealNetworks stretched the credulity of even its hostile observers by daring to release the first client in its beta version, to paying subscribers. Scandalous on the face of it, a flagrant and profound bugginess alienated pioneer customers of authorized music downloads. I had been working online for ten years at that point, building and reviewing online services, and I had never seen such a ragged product launch. Uncountable numbers of would-be participants in this new business model were driven back to unauthorized music providers.

America Online, an on-board MusicNet distributor, refused to carry v1.0, further thwarting its penetration. Going back to the drawing board, AOL lent designers to the MusicNet effort in an attempt to develop a service worthy of AOL's sizable customer base. The result is MusicNet on AOL, which consists of a dedicated desktop client operating outside the AOL service window.

OVERVIEW:
AOL subscribers can sign up for MusicNet through the flagship AOL program, simply adding the monthly charge to their existing bill. The service promises 250,000 songs and one free trial month. There is no promotional splash in version 7.0; one must drill to the Music section to find MusicNet. Three monthly subscription tiers are offered:
* Basic: 20 streams and 20 downloads
* Standard: Unlimited streams and downloads
* Premium: Standard plus 10 track burns
Unsurprisingly, downloads are security-wrapped, and last only as long as the subscription is active. The value proposition is roughly identical to other services, and does not provide interesting comparisons. MusicNet On AOL must be evaluated on the basis of its interface and client features.

page 1 | 2 | 3