How unexpected is this: The biggest phone company and internet provider, in the smallest country in the world (Denmark), comes up with the innovation and creative thinking to legalize what teenagers around the globe have been craving since the first version of Napster came out over a decade ago: Free legal music downloads!
TDC (as they call themselves) launched the new service "Play" earlier this year, and as I've been away from Denmark for a while, I didn't really notice until I came back last week. I couldn't really overlook the posters and ads around the city if I tried. They were boasting and bragging about the new features of every subscriber to their phone services: Free music! One would only pay ones normal subscription fee, and then be endowed with access to the vastness of the worlds accumulated music.
An excerpt from the Danish website: "It doesn't cost anything to have access to PLAY when you are a TDC internet and/or phone customer, with a subscription that includes PLAY. You only have to click on the P next to the song you want to download."
I, of course had my reservations. This could not be true!! And on top of everything else, they claimed to be the first company in the world to do this!? How was this even possible? Conceivable?! This had to be tested....
So I was in the subway, enticed by yet another "Play" ad, in the news paper. I whipped out my phone, and went to TDC's portal site. Browsed some songs, and what do you know: it was easy as pie! Every song with a little "Play" logo, is immediately available as a download. And since my phone has another name on the side of it: "walkman", then plugging in headphones and starting the groove was easy.
I still had my concerns though: Were they gonna charge me something on the side anyways? You never know about these big corporations. I think TDC is actually a part of a bigger american company. Anyways, concerns: So I called them up, and the nice lady with the suburban accent reassured me, I wouldn't be charged for anything!!
That made me think. If people can download all the music in the world for free, and the artists are being paid by the phone companies and internet providers... what is that going to do with our music consumption? Is it gonna be like having a free pass in a candy store, or will people get to be more selective?
In a nutshell: A Danish phone company has done, what no one else has been able to achieve: Free music! Now, we just need it in iTunes, and the world will be a state of momentary bliss.
Link to the Danish website (in Danish)
1 comment:
While I do applaud this initiative by TDC you ignore the DRM issue and the fact that you do, indirectly, pay via your provuder. So the music is neither free in the freedom sense (you are not allowed to do anything with it else than play it on your device) or in the free beer sense. The next step for TDC and the labels is to do away with DRM completely. And allow users to share, like they do anyway.
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