AudioGalaxy Repackaging Listen.com Is Groundbreaking?
from the say-what?? dept
A reporter for the San Jose Mercury News seems to be claiming that the "new" AudioGalaxy is "groundbreaking" when all they've really done is rebranded Listen.com's service, which has been available for a while. I really don't see what's so groundbreaking about it. All of these pay services seem to confuse the fact that simply offering downloadable or streaming music from a central source isn't the same thing as file sharing. File sharing lets people experiment and find out what others like. An official music downloading service is more likely to push the crap that the music industry is hyping at the moment. Also, by adding rules and restrictions to the services, they're not offering a valid substitute for users. The article even points out that a gaming company hired someone to put up copies of their games on a file sharing network when they discovered that a number of people who played the game that way ended up buying the full version. People are willing to pay if you give them what they want. Putting up silly restrictions, or rebranding other services that are already available aren't "groundbreaking" and aren't what consumers want.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
