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MusicNet and EMI to offer 1 million DRM-free tunes
Hot on the heels of EMI / Apple's iTunes Plus offerings, and Amazon's DRM-free music store, comes news that the industry media-providing MusicNet service will be making a 1-million-song outlay of EMI and indie tracks to its waiting corporate partners, sans DRM. So what does this mean for us? Well, clearly the DRM-bucking trends that have been put into play are causing some serious ripple effects throughout the industry, and since MusicNet provides content to places like Yahoo! Music Unlimited, HMV Digital, and URGE -- not exactly small potatoes -- it's likely we'll start seeing free-er music popping up all over the place. Don't get too comfortable though, the RIAA will still find ways to make your life hell.[Via TG Daily]
Samsung teams with MusicNet for subscription-based music service
Samsung certainly has an on-again / off-again history with regard to online music services, but the MusicNet-based system that was most recently announced is finally going live in the UK, France, and Germany. Built to work seamlessly with the firm's K3, K5, and T9 media players, users will soon be able to access and purchase digital music through the Samsung Media Studio application. Notably, previously released DAPs (such as the Z5) that were dubbed PlaysForSure devices are also compatible with the new platform. The service will provide a duo of ways to pay, the first of which will demand €14.99 ($20) for the subscription-based flavor if you reside in Germany or France, while the Brits will pony up £10.25 ($21). For those digging the per-song approach, you'll be looking at €1.15 ($1.57) or £0.79 ($1.60) depending on your homeland. Currently, it seems that the SamsungPlay website is still in limbo, but we're sure it'll have its act together before too long.[Via Pocket-Lint]
Samsung bites the bullet: launching its own music service
They've been playing footsy with their own music download service for a while now, but Samsung has finally announced that they'll be joining the club and will launch a MusicNet-based service this year. Now that Microsoft has practically abandoned PlaysForSure with its Zune offering, it's clear that Apple's iTunes/iPod two-fer model is going to be necessary to compete with the big boys. Unfortunately, that competition won't be taking place in the US for the forseeable future: Samsung plans to launch their store later this year in the UK, Germany and France, with the rest of Europe and Asia to follow. They'll have new players about that time as well, including the sexy YP-K5 -- we just hope they find it in their heart to bestow them on us lowly citizens of the Americas.
