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BBC lays out 'open' vision to combat licence fee critics
The BBC is a renowned broadcaster and a part of Britain's cultural fabric, but its future capabilities are currently under threat. The UK government is preparing to amend its Royal Charter -- a document that shapes the BBC's funding and remit -- and early consultations have hinted at drastic clawbacks. In retaliation, the BBC has announced a volley of counter-proposals today that would, it claims, make its services more "open" and distinctive.
BBC Playlister web app launches today as an open beta
Well, that was quick. Having announced its new Playlister service yesterday, the BBC's now said it's launching later today. The beta web client won't just work nicely on PCs, it'll also be optimized for mobile browsers, and instead of a dedicated app for the service, Playlister will be integrated into the iPlayer Radio app "over the coming months." Using the web platform, you'll able to add music to personal playlists from any of the BBC's radio stations, as well as tracks that've featured on TV shows aired on any of the Beeb's channels. As we heard yesterday, those playlists can then be exported to YouTube, Spotify or Deezer for listening. Having seen a brief demo, adding, managing and exporting is all pretty simple. You may not find all the tracks you've added on every service you export to, but it's clear about how many are missing -- you'll shortly be able to play around with it yourself, of course. Soon, you'll also be able to follow your favorite BBC radio DJ's and see what they're adding to their own Playlister mixtapes. This is just the start, apparently, as the BBC says many other features are to be added in the future. Update: Live!
BBC announces Playlister music discovery service (video)
Remember when the rumors were that the BBC was launching a streaming service providing access to the highly-desirable archive recordings trapped in its archives? No such luck, friends. Playlister may now be real, but it's also just a way to find tracks you've already heard broadcast. It works by letting you collate playlists of recently-aired tunes, before pushing them to the audio / video service of your choice. For instance, you could pull a track from Radio 1, 2, 3 and 6 each before pushing them out to YouTube, Spotify or Deezer for listening. The service will also offer curation from notable DJs like Jo Wiley and Zane Lowe, and while the first edition will be browser-based, Auntie promises that more services and platforms will be added along the way.
BBC in talks to build Playlister, a streaming music service for its own music archive
The BBC is home to a massive archive of highly desirable music that, sadly, due to licensing reasons, remains gathering dust in is enormous vaults. The Telegraph is reporting that the corporation's music head, Tim Davie, is trying to put some or all of that material online for users to enjoy without additional charges. He's said to be in talks with Spotify, Deezer and Apple to help build a service called Playlister, using the trio's bulk-deals with the record labels to get around the long-winded wrangling that would otherwise be required. If successful, it'll launch in 2013 free to license-fee paying Brits in a similar fashion to the wildly successful iPlayer -- although we'd pay a little extra if Fearne Cotton was excluded from the catalog.
