Mandriva Linux to Offer Online Music Service

dysfirkin writes "Mandriva 2006 is to be the first Linux distro to offer built in online music service. The service will compete with the likes of emusic.com for the music business of Linux users. I have not used Mindawn before, but the service is offered in Ogg Vorbis and FLAC."

Incredibly annoying popup thingy alert!

[onebuttonmouse]

and annoying auto playing video with sound!

Doesn't mention how much this will cost. I'm guessing from the text of the article that this is a pay-per-song service rather than a subscription model, but it doesn't explicitly say.

Interesting that it will support Linux, Windows and OS X - is this the only music service that can claim this kind of compatibility?

BETTER news link HERE:

[reaktor]

http://www.mindawn.com/news/34?PHPSESSID=109de8547 5f3274709a8bd0cb78e05d0 [mindawn.com]

Linspire did this over a year ago

[One Louder]

Linspire has offered a music store (MP3tunes) in their Lsongs [lsongs.com] music client since last year.

It's also non-DRM music from independent artists.

Re:Incredibly annoying popup thingy alert!

[snooga]

Interesting that it will support Linux, Windows and OS X - is this the only music service that can claim this kind of compatibility?

Nope. Bleep.com [bleep.com] provides DRM free MP3s of loads of interesting artists from The Arctic Monkeys [bleep.com] and Maximo Park [bleep.com] to Billy Bragg [bleep.com] and Boards of Canada [bleep.com]. From their FAQ:

Bleep files have no 'DRM' or copy protection built in. We believe that most people like to be treated as customers and not potential criminals - DRM is easily circumvented and just puts obstacles in the way of enjoying music.

Re:Maybe...

[markdavis]

>This is a nice way of saying "Nobody uses Linux at all, except a few wingnuts with wacko political beliefs".

It is true that the desktop use of Linux is small. But, by every reasonable estimate I have seen, world-wide desktop use of Linux is easily larger than that of Apple. So calling it "nobody" is inaccurate.

You are trying to twist what I said. My point is/was:

1) Technically saavy users are aware of the problems/issues with DRM.
2) Technically saavy users typically don't want DRM or lossy encoding.
3) Linux users are, by percentage, are much more saavy than the non-Linux users.

There are a WHOLE LOT more users who are "saavy" using MS-Windows and MacOS combined than there are using Linux. But the RATIO of savvy to non-savvy is MUCH lower.

Re:If Microsoft did this...

[AdamWill]

That would be because they're the incumbent monopoly in the desktop operating system market. Much as we (Mandriva) would like to be, we're not.

Re:Cheap good music service

[LubosD]

I don't know other European countries' laws but in Czech Republic allofmp3 is definitely legal - you're allowed to download any audio/video you want (even from "illegal" source) but you must not share the data with someone else. I call this a good law.

This is Nothing New....

[pvjr]

Magnatune.com [magnatune.com] has been doing the same thing for a while now - minus the extra player. They work on an "honor" system. You pay what you think the artists are worth, and you can make as many copies as you need, even give 3 away to other people.

And if you must have major label stuff, Real Rhapsody [rhapsody.com] has a beta version FireFox plugin that allows you to use the entire jukebox service. Given, you can't download and keep it, but at least you can listen to the service, and Real is doing something for us Linux users.

If there's no God, Why do people keep asking Him to bless and damn everything?

Re:No MP3?

[NutscrapeSucks]

The Shit/Size ratio is exactly how "better" is defined in this argument.

Once you get up to around 256kbps there's no huge difference between any of them -- the reason OGG/WMA/AAC are considered "better" is because you can get away with a 128Kps or less file in some circumstances.