Unlimited downloads the future of digital music distribution?

News
By published

News aplenty on the digital distribution front this week. Not only has Lord Carter´s Digital Britain report report been published (the upshot being that the Government will step in if the piracy situation doesn´t improve), but Virgin and Universal have announced a deal where by the end of the year fee-paying subscribers will be allowed to download as much DRM-free music as they like.


Great for fans of Girls Aloud then, but what if you are after something a bit more obscure? Will this kind of subscription service ever catch on?

Tim Cant
More about music tech

MusicRadar deals of the week: I'm feeling this! Score an impressive £350 off the Fender DeLonge Starcaster, as well as hundreds off Epiphone, Gretsch, Gibson and more

“Do you dare to ditch those ‘normal’ beats in favour of hands-on tweaking and extreme sounds? Of course, you do”: Sonicware CyDrums review

“Sometimes I am two people. Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble. They fight”: How Johnny Cash drew on his own experiences to make his greatest songs
See more latest
Most Popular
Vaughn Oliver
“I have that on more records than anything else”: Take a peek inside Vaughn Oliver’s studio
Wendy Carlos
“Wendy Carlos is able to build precisely the sound that she wants”: Watch synth pioneer Wendy Carlos in the studio, working Moog magic back in 1989
Reggie Watts and the Coachella crowd
“No real sense of love coming from the festival toward the people… Just vibes curated for influencer culture”: Reggie Watts just summed up everyone's Coachella experience
Deals of the week
MusicRadar deals of the week: I'm feeling this! Score an impressive £350 off the Fender DeLonge Starcaster, as well as hundreds off Epiphone, Gretsch, Gibson and more
Ed Sheeran arrives for his copyright infringement trial at Manhattan Federal Court on May 04, 2023 in New York City
Ed Sheeran’s plagiarism court case forced him to hand over his old phone as evidence. Now he’s got a new single out of it
Adele
“It didn’t feel like being in the room with a 17-year-old. I’d try something and she’d say, ‘You might want to reconsider that.’ And she’d be right”: Songwriter Eg White on how Adele took some “very boring chords” and turned them into an “explosive” hit
Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater
“I oversaw every element - not just the music and the lyrics and the melodies and the production, but also the merch and the fan clubs and everything”: Mike Portnoy talks about his years away from Dream Theater
Keybird L1
We didn't think we needed a compact 4-octave acoustic piano that can also work as a MIDI keyboard, but the super-cute Keybird L1 might have convinced us otherwise
dan nigro in the studio
"That's what it takes to make music that's gonna last forever": Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan producer Daniel Nigro on crafting timeless tracks
Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal: this pedal has a racing car aesthetic and houses "a fully playable electro-mechanical synth voice that tracks the pitch of your playing in real time".
“A fully playable electro-mechanical synth voice that tracks the pitch of your playing in real time”: Gamechanger Audio unveils the Motor Pedal – a real synth pedal with a “multi-modal gas pedal”