April 28, 2005

SBC Launches Music Video Site

WSJ (sub. req.): SBC, which is making a big bet on using entertainment content to drive people to its broadband access services, has launched a music video and content site, The Blue Room...it is offering exclusive videos and content that SBC will tout in a 140-city tour this summer. SBC also is close to announcing it is sponsoring 20th Century Fox's summer action-hero movie, "Fantastic Four."
"We're interested in behaviors that promote broadband," whether that's e-mailing photos, downloading music or watching movies, says Michael Grasso, executive director of SBC's marketing operation. "We're trying to reach out to different consumers in a multitude of different ways."
Release: Also, down the line, Spanish speaking consumers will have access to in-language content within the SBC Blue Room.

Posted by Rafat Ali in Broadband | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 25, 2005

Online music lovers 'frustrated'

BBC: The beeb has an article on how music lovers are generally less than impressed with buying music online. I can sympathise -- when I tried to buy a legitimate copy of "Dance me to the end of love" by Leonard Cohen a few months ago the total time it took amounted to a couple of days. The biggest problem stems from digital rights management. People are upset that there are restrictions not only on how many devices the song can play on but on what type of devices. And of course there's the problem I had -- many online music stores only sell to a particular country. Is there a legitimate reason for this? Well, "Apple's online music store, the most successful of the online services, is currently under investigation by the European Commission for charging UK iTunes customers more than users in France or Germany." It comes down to money, basically. Until the record labels make the music available at a reasonable price (eg, cheaper than CDs) piracy will continue.

Posted by James in Broadband | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack