Going the Apple way
BBC
Worldwide is to follow Apple's success and develop a music download
service. The BBC will offer streamed for free and paid download works from
its archive of music.
Unlike the Apple iTunes service, the BBC shop will not
be flogging ordinary content. Instead it will be live sessions recorded at BBC
HQ, often of current singles, acoustic versions of popular tracks, or cover
versions of other artists' work. The performances are always well-recorded,
and on Radio 1 often get requested for replay by fans.
BBC sessions have
featured as B-sides to CD singles before now and as bonus tracks on albums. In
1994, a massive collection of The Beatles' BBC recordings were finally released
on CD. Talks are underway with major recording labels in a bid to widen the
collection. EMI has signed up but MusicWeek reports that talks are underway
with other major labels. A source also claimed that the earliest the service
could launch is January 2009.
The free streaming option is said to be
ad-supported. This will annoy UK punters who spent a lot of money over the
years paying the BBC licence fee and will think they should get stuff they and
their parents paid for, for nothing.