

Did Google Just Quietly Launch A Web-Based iTunes Competitor? Yep. - derekc
http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/20/um-did-google-just-quietly-launch-a-web-based-itunes-competitor-yep/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Techcrunch+(TechCrunch)

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jsz0
Downloading a lot of music over the cellular data network is a bit scary to
me. Is it really wise? That's a lot of bandwidth being devoted to a task that
can be accomplished faster and more efficiently by just plugging in a USB
cable. Phones are personal devices -- it's not like they're too far out of
reach at any given time. It would probably be more responsible for this
feature to only work over wifi at least until the US data networks catch-up
with current demand. I don't want to suffer with slow speeds because someone
has their SmartPhone 6 inches from their computer doing OTA downloads of 80MB
albums instead of plugging in a cable. I suspect some carriers will disable
this feature on their devices. The OTA/web app downloading on the other hand
makes perfect sense. Fairly small apps -- stuff you'd be downloading on your
phone anyway.

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fierarul
This seems very conservative. Let's not worry about the poor US carriers
getting so much business these days.

In the EU I have an unlimited 3G subscription for about 10 eur. It's probably
capped in some way but always got the job done (albeit sometimes very slowly).
Why should I worry that the data network is overloaded when the carrier here
sells this thing. It's probably illegal to sell a service you know you cannot
provide.

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barredo
> In the EU I have an unlimited 3G subscription for about 10 eur.

Where? I'm also in EU and I only get "unlimited 3.6Mbps 3G" for 21€/mo, but
after the first gigabyte it get's downgraded to 64kbps...

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dagw
In Sweden you can get unlimited 3G for 7€/month if you're willing to accept
that they cap you to 64kb/s after 500MB.

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borism
I just subscribed to unlimited 3G capped at 256kbps for ~6EUR/month on Tele2
Estonia.

256kbps is awfully slow if you are usually on 12mbps home adsl though :)

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loire280
Do music stores even matter anymore? Selling DRM-free MP3 downloads is a
commodity business if I've ever seen one. The only trick is getting labels to
sign on. Besides, syncing is an essential part of buying MP3 music: you don't
want your music library only stored on your easily-lost cellphone, do you?

Anyone know if Google's music store lets you re-download songs? If not, I
imagine there's going to be more than a few people who have to re-buy a bunch
of albums because they lost their never-synced phone.

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enomar
Selling mp3s may not be the point. This may just be a really great feature
that helps sell phones. Certainly, iTunes integration is a major selling point
for iPhones.

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RyanMcGreal
"Commoditize your complement"

<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html>

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swilliams
Will this be an adequate replacement for Lala? It sounds like it might be.

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cageface
I've switched over to Mog.com, which in many ways I actually prefer to Lala.

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AGorilla
Techcrunch is using the term "launch" loosely here.

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endlessvoid94
and "quietly"

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pontifier
Good try, but still not good enough. My media startup will destroy them both.

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sjwalter
Care to elaborate?

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pontifier
I am in the process of getting a patent on a method for distributing digital
media in a unique way. I have a private proof of concept website set up now,
but it is not ready to launch publicly yet (the graphical design is very rough
and the selection of media is extremely limited at this time).

If you would like to check it out I can set up an account for you to see how
it works.

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whatusername
fine - I'll bite. There's an email address in my profile.. I'll check it out
(and report back to HN/This thread if you like..)

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whatusername
To Update: Pontifier has sent me through the link / login details.. I'll agree
completely that the design needs a lot of work -- but I'll refrain from
commenting on how it works / business models / etc until I've played with it a
bit more.

