Pressplay to offer unlimited downloads

Some music companies are finally seeing the light. They are starting to understand that you can't compete with free file-sharing services if you restrict the consumer too much. Pressplay, a joint venture between Sony and Vivendi Universal, will allow unlimited downloading for an annual fee.

The company is expected to announce a new pricing plan and software package beginning Thursday, according to sources familiar with the plans. Under one section of the new plan, subscribers will be able to download or stream an unlimited number of songs to their computer for a single annual fee of $179.40, the equivalent of today's $14.95 monthly fee, according to a customer service representative.

While other independent companies have offered unlimited access to music before, it's the first time one of the label-backed subscription plans has cracked the door this wide to its catalog. As such, it marks a concession that the "all you can eat" expectations of consumers reared on services like Napster or Kazaa may well be a permanent feature of the online music landscape.

This is a very good start. Start? Yes, because they still limit the amount of music you can burn onto a CD for example. As long as they don't offer more than other file-sharing networks, people will stick to the old ones. Here you can read the full article. Would you pay for downloading music if you get quality?

Source: Cnet