The German publisher Heise has started an action to find out if it is possible to
make profits when selling music for only 50 Eurocents. The Munich band Soul Kitchen produced the soul
ballad "Hold me in your arms" solely for this action. The title can be
downloaded as an MP3, WMA, AAC and Ogg Vorbis file with 128, 160 and 192 kBit/s
until the end of August 2004. Unlike most commercial platforms, usage of
these files is not restricted as there is no DRM applied to
them.
 Still during this year, legal download offers from Apple and
Napster are going to reach the German markets. But it is questionable, if
they will be able to make them as attractive as in the USA. Frank
Steinhoff, the chief of Apple Germany recently stated in an interview
that negotiations with national fee collecting companies is harder
than expected. While in the USA company chief Steve Jobs was supposedly
breaking the resistance of the big labels' bosses with iPod
and iTunes in the baggage on a tour through the executive board floors,
the stubbornness of the European fee collectors and
the bullheaded price expectations of the labels seems to be
a hard nut to crack for Apple.
In order for legal downloads to establish, a new
pricing is needed. If everyone who is involved would pass on the
lower costs to the customers, 50 cent downloads are not
impossible.
 For this
action, three songs were written and the c't editorial staff chose the
atmospheric ballad "Hold Me In Your Arms". Afterwards the composer and
Soul Kitchen keyboarder Oliver Ringleb, who works for Red Lama Production
as a composer and producer for years, together with Marty Wynton did some
fine tuning. The song was originally made for only one singer but it was
rewritten for a duet and recorded with Theresa Burnette and John Davis.
John Davis will be known to many music fans as "The Real Voice of Milli
Vanilli"
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I think this is a great idea and I hope they will be able to prove
that users are willing to pay for downloaded music especially if these
titles are without Digital Rights Management (Digital Restrictions Management
would fit better) and you are able to create as many copies as you want for your
personal use.
Support this action here and then discuss about it in the comments below or in our
Audio Forum.
Unfortunately you will probably be unable to pay for this download
outside of Germany, because I guess there is no way to use the payment platform
T-Pay from other countries.
Source: 50 Cent und gut
