Kazaa Relaunches As “Future Of Digital Music”. It’s Not.
(UPDATED) The press release arrived with the bold headline "Kazaa Relaunched – The Future Of Digital Music". After a rumored $100 million settlement with rights holders Kazaa is coming back to life as a legal digital music service in the United States.
Owner Altnet hopes to use once powerful Kazaa file-sharing brand to launch a licensed market offering music and ringtones available via subscription. All four major record companies (Universal, Sony, Warner Music Group and EMI,) plus some independent labels, have entered into agreements to provide content.
But the new Kazaa comes with a price tag and restrictions that make adoption by former file sharers unlikely. For $19.98/mo, you can download unlimited music to play on just 3 PCs. and you won’t be able to play those files on a portable music player. Once your subscription ends, you will no longer be able to play any files.
Kevin Bermeister, CEO is still optimistic, 'We are delighted to be able to deliver a fresh and exciting music platform to customers via an established icon like Kazaa. While these are not the best of economic times we have every confidence that our marketing and affinity with our customers will have us punching well above our weight in the market", he said.
"Kazaa expects a steady growth in its customer numbers but prefers to let its results do the talking so stay tuned for our next press release" concludes today's announcement.
I wouldn't bet on Kazaa making it to a second press release.
“For $19.98/mo, you can download unlimited music to play on just 3 PCs. and you won’t be able to play those files on a portable music player. Once your subscription ends, you will no longer be able to play any files.”
They’re kidding right? They have effectively attempted to turn music from a piece of entertainment, into a dangerous liability.
wow. i thought it would be the year 2009 already. what a waste of money and time…
This might have been novel in 2000; however, at this po9int, this is a joke of a service.
Kind of sad. Not only is considering Kazaa to be “an established icon”just a bit of an overstatement, but when the freakin RIAA says that DRM is dead, you better not have a business model based on DRM.
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Sara
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Read Wayne Rosso’s Latest Blog On Filesharing And The ISP’s Responsibility Here:
http://www.themusicvoid.com/2009/07/filesharing-anarchy-in-the-uk/
What’s worse, you have to fill out all the account info before they even say one word about being a pay service, how much or any restrictions on a different section of their site! Goooooooood luck with the “future”!
The $19.98 price would be OK if the unlimited downloads could be played on portable devices and if they stayed once you canceled the subscription.