Yahoo Japan To Launch Free Distribution Of Music
from the a-price-point-that-makes-sense dept
Folks over at Yahoo Japan seem to be a bit more clued in than elsewhere. First they did a great job getting people signed up for broadband all across the country, and now they're looking to offer a free music downloading service. The article is short on details, so it's tough to tell if the service is worthwhile, but at least they've gotten the price point right. The service will be free (though, they'll be paying royalties to the publishers). It sounds like they're using the service to attract more people to their site. It doesn't say anything about selection, though. It also sounds like a "downloading" service - and not a "sharing" service - which would take away a lot of the benefits for everyone involved (including Yahoo - to save on their bandwidth costs). However, it is a step in the right direction to realize that consumers are unlikely to pay.
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