On Monday (today) Liquid Audio and an EMI division plan to launch a service that lets subscribers burn tunes to a CD or transfer them to portable devices C|Net's News.Com reports:
The BurnItFirst service joins a rash of online music subscription services, including Pressplay and MusicNet, which are all aiming to take the lead in a market that has yet to fully evolve from free file-swapping services.
Phil Benyola, a digital media research associate for investment company Raymond James Financial, said portability is going to be one of the "major issues" for getting people to sign up for these services.
"If they know that they can buy a CD online and burn it themselves instantly instead of having to go to the store to get it, especially if it's at a lower price point, then I think people will be willing to sign up" for the services, Benyola said.
To protect its music, Liquid Audio said BurnItFirst.com uses its digital rights management format to control copying and transfers to portable devices. For $9.95 a month the service will give consumers 20 digital downloads. Using Liquid Player software, consumers can download full albums or individual tracks, create their own playlists, and burn and transfer songs.
We have seen these kinds of services before in the mentioned Pressplay and MusicNet sites but to my knowledge they're not a big success so far. I wonder how well this new 'project' will do... We'll have to wait and see.
Source: C|net News.com
