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Music Media Software The Internet Linux

Music Download Service Targets Linux Desktops 221

Posted by michael from the about-time dept.
An anonymous reader writes "According to DesktopLinux.com, a new music download service was launched recently by theKompany.com that, unlike iTunes and Napster, targets Linux desktops. Mindawn is claimed to provide CD-quality song files and 'virtually no' digital rights management (DRM) restrictions, offer full previews of the entire songs, and provide downloads in a variety of formats." There's also an interview with the founder.
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Music Download Service Targets Linux Desktops More

Music Download Service Targets Linux Desktops

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  • The Good and the Bad. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by h4rm0ny ( 722443 ) * on Saturday December 18, 2004 @06:03PM (#11126488) Journal

    The good stuff is all in the story - a music download service that provides Ogg format music without DRM and a Linux client.

    The bad stuff is that there doesn't seem to be much support for big name music. It'll come, and it will only come through sites like this leading the way. But for now, it looks like I still have to get most of my music from iTunes.

    On the plus side, things like this do help little known independent bands sell to a much larger audience. And a lot of these bands are really good. The major labels take ages to notice something good. Especially if it's original. We'll start seeing bands become successful through sites like this soon, and when they do and they keep 75% of the profits, that'll be it for the music industry as they know it.

    Mighty oaks, and all that...

    • Sounds cool, reminds me of Warp Records' Bleep [bleep.com] site. Of course, that's only for music under their label (lots of really good electronica). What amazed me is Warp Records knows how to properly encode audio, they actually use lame w/VBR and some tweaks to make excellent MP3s (I have bought a few albums there).
      • Exactly. Slashdot covered Bleep here [slashdot.org], but I'd completely forgotten about it until this story came up. Anyway, Bleep seems to have grown quite a bit, selling albums and songs from other big electronica labels like Ninja Tune, Mego (Kevin Drumm's Sheer Hellish Miasma is the best album ever!), Domino (Franz Ferdinand seems to be popular now, but that's not electronica), One Little Indian (Bjork) and more.

        It's far from the biggest store on the net, but OTOH, it's extremely cool, if you're into that sort of mus

        • Yeah. First time I heard about them (original Slashdot article) and I immediately puchased some Aphex Twin and Black Dog from them. Enjoyed the music (still do) and was glad that I was able to actually legitimately buy it. I've said that I'm willing to pay for DRM-free digital music and enjoyed the chance to actually put my money where my mouth was.

          Haven't used it since but as their catalogue seems to have increased then I think I'll be using them again. The more sites that do this the better things will

    • Re:The Good and the Bad. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by nkh ( 750837 )
      I may be different but I don't really want famous artists. I want to be able to discover new stuff. The problem is: I have to download their closed-source player in order to listen to previews and demos. I wished there was something more like Magnatune [magnatune.com], or a 30 seconds low-quality mp3 version for example.

      OTOH they don't believe a CD copied to a friend is a lost sale, they think it's one future customer! They deserve respect for that.
    • ...It'll come...

      Don't hold your breath. It's pretty unlikely to come because:

      a) Contrary to what you hear on /. there simply aren't enough Linux desktop users out there to make developing and marketing such a service commercially viable at this time
      and
      b) The music industry has put *way* too much effort into DRM protected music to say "hey, let's let someone sell non-DRM music 'cos those crazy Linux guys won't share it with their mates, will they?"

      Nothing personal you understand, but that's busines
      • The music industry has put *way* too much effort into DRM protected music

        Agreed! There's a fat chance of finding The Counting Crows or REM on this service (or services like them)....

        but...maby the next good band may be found here.

        Who knows!
      • Contrary to what you hear on /. there simply aren't enough Linux desktop users out there to make developing and marketing such a service commercially viable

        Actually we hear that sort of thing constantly on slashdot - LOL, slashdot is a tech gossip site, not a linux site per se, and most slashdotters are just microsoft windows users who have heard of linux, and that comes through pretty clearly in comments like yours.

        Linux market share is estimated by some to be in the same neighborhood as mac market shar

      • a) Contrary to what you hear on /. there simply aren't enough Linux desktop users out there to make developing and marketing such a service commercially viable at this time

        Did you read the story? There is a _native_ client for MS Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (thanks to the great QT library). So this service has the _potential_ to reach every user out there.

        The only thing they need now is to get more "mainstream" music. The teeny-bopper crap that most of us /.ers don't care about, but the masses seem t

      • Contrary to what you hear on /.(or in this case what the /.headline might lead you to believe) this service doesn't only work on Linux.

        It supports linux- it also supports windows and mac users. So there are plenty of users out there to make developing and marketing such a service commercially viable at this time.
    • The good stuff is all in the story - a music download service that provides Ogg format music without DRM and a Linux client. The bad stuff is that there doesn't seem to be much support for big name music. It'll come, and it will only come through sites like this leading the way.

      No, it won't. Most big name artists...check that, most big name labels won't come anywhere near this with its limited DRM. I can't say I agree with it, but money talks and $DEITY knows that the big 5 are all about money.

      I wo

      • I would like to think as you do that bands will skip the middleman and go right to publishing their music online, but that wouldn't just be a radical shift for the music industry...it'd basically be blowing it up and starting it all over again. The promotion machine that is the music industry is what bands need to try to make money, not the selling outlet.

        First off, I'd better explain the logic behind my conclusion:

        There are a lot of good bands out there. That's obvious because big labels have to get
        • It will only take one or two bands to achieve success through these sort of outlets to really shake things up.

          I certainly hope so. There's a lot of good bands out there that aren't getting their due from "the man" and as such aren't getting heard by many folks.
    • a music download service that provides Ogg format music without DRM

      Haha. Yeah, that's new... No other music download services (like allofmp3.com) have EVER had that bright idea before.

      The bad stuff is that there doesn't seem to be much support for big name music.

      Actually, that "bad stuff", is the only "good stuff" in the story... A music download service that allows any (independent) artists to sign-up.

  • eMusic already supports Linux (Score:5, Informative)

    by eMartin ( 210973 ) on Saturday December 18, 2004 @06:07PM (#11126516)
    eMusic offers MP3 downloads and also offers a Linux version of their download manager (if you choose to use it).

  • where I stopped reading (Score:5, Informative)

    by levl289 ( 72277 ) on Saturday December 18, 2004 @06:09PM (#11126523) Homepage
    While many of the 1,000 or so tracks now featured on the service...



    You could literally have the best and most rights friendly (whose?) service on the planet, but if all you have is one thousand songs, and no deals with recognizable record companys, or artists (it'll never happen with their TOS), why should I care?

    Really, this isn't a troll, but this just strikes me as being along the same lines as the truckloads of audio players that play a bjillion formats, but don't actually offer anything that I want.

    • Don't underestimate the power of independance. Thomas Dolby is a good friend of CD Baby (which offers DRM free music downloads) and Magnatune has several artists that you may not immediately recognize (and what non-geek teenager nowdays knows Thomas Dolby?) but have been published on old school labels before offering some of their catalog under Magnatune's open license.

      Artists get generally treated like shit by the labels, and most nowdays don't keep control of their music. It would be great if an Alice Co

    • Here is a better idea: get some taste in music. Now I don't know if the selections are any good, but if you don't listen, how will you know. There are plenty of good musicians that you have never heard of. Most don't even bother looking for the big deals (other than in dreams). Start looking for them. Let your friends call your tastes eccentric, who cares, you get good music.

      Now I agree 1000 songs isn't much, but if they are good songs it is enough, it will take you several years to enjoy them all.

      • Maybe you can help me.

        I have absolutely no taste in music. None. To me music and silence have about the same enjoyment value. However, I enjoy listenting to intricate melodies, philosophical lyrics, interesting beats, etc.

        I guess I have a like for various techno-ish things, but I could never find enough interesting music to even bothering listening to. I would love if I could find an independent band who would produce the kind of music that I would actually like to turn on. It seems that most mainstream m

        • I'm not sure, since I've never heard any of those songs. I'm into bluegrass [bluegrassbox.com] myself. Free play music [freeplaymusic.com] has some stuff that might be interesting. A google search for band might result in stuff.

          Heres an idea: go to local band concerts. I'm sure there is a listing of concerts in your area someplace. (ticketmaster has one, but they might be too much to the RIAA side of things, in any case they are a monopoly so it is hard to say they are any more moral) Many bars have live music, and most of the bands pl

    • All great journeys begin with a single step. While a thousand songs may not seem like much now, the fact that such a service exists shows how far "we" have come.

      A music purchasing service that focuses on cross platform compatibility, no DRM, and gives 50-75% of each sale to the artist? While they have "only" a thousand songs, this shows great potential.
  • According to the article, it should be available to Linux, Mac, and Windowns desktops..... not just Linux. Offers non-lossy FLAC and Ogg compression as well as lossy formats.

    But a complete Ogg "CD" still costs 6.99 and FLAC costs 8.99

    Sounds like a OK deal overall (figuring no DRM) but right now it specializes in Progressive Rock.... but hopefully the selection will get broader, just like Ebay started out with just Pez dispensers.
    • you forgot one important thing.

      absolutely no music that anyone would want to buy.

      until they sign a deal with BMI and ASCAP for their libraries of music to sell they are nothing more than a repeat of the other 20 online DRM free music sites.

      Magnatune has 900 times the music than they do and they still are not even known by 1% of music listeners.

      Neat idea, great service, too bad they have nothing to sell but extremely obscure and unknown.

      Maybe if they team up with places like IUMA.org and try to get the
    • >> but right now it specializes in Progressive Rock.

      And bad prog too. Salem Hill? The Red Masque? Ouch.

  • I'd love to support them.

    Trouble is, I want to buy Franz Ferdinand, not Fred and the Freaks....

    Much as I admire the attempt, I can't see major labels sacrificing their precious DRM.

    Remember when iTunes came out - none of us could beleive how strict it was - quite how inconvenient it would be to use. Nowadays iTunes is the friendly face of DRM...

    I'd just buy a damn CD if they weren't protecting them as well... I just want to listen on my Linux PC and iPod why do they make it so difficult?
  • Unfortunately, it won't be good enough for most Linux types?

    Why? It won't be gratis, open-source, and have all the songs they want. And don't say that this is an impossible combination; piracy can deliver just that.

    The *AA are right to be frigtened of the 'net.

  • Unsustainable (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DogDude ( 805747 ) on Saturday December 18, 2004 @06:16PM (#11126565)
    I have no idea what this company's business plan looks like, but anybody with even a modicum of common sense knows that there's virtually no way possible to grow this thing into a usable service if your customer base is that tiny. We're talking HOME LINUX users. Realistically, that's a customer base that's in the 5 figures, low 6 figures, tops. Out of those, even if they get 50% of the market, it's going to be very tough. But that current customer base is mainly made up of geeks screaming "free! free! free!" who are very able to find free music. So not only is their potential customer base tiny, but the customer base that does exist is not one that is likely to purchase music.

    This one is a no brainer. It's just a matter of time before they run out of cash.
    • I was really surpriced to see this site with the same target as I was investaging. Flac/Vorbis/MP3 database with ISRC. The concept of lossless is not new, but getting on demand-licences for the populair songs is.

      Over here in The Netherlands some DRM based download sites pop-up these day, I hope there will be a DRM-free and lossless initiative for Apple prices.

    • You've been misled by the phrase "targets Linux". According to the article, they're ready for Linux, MS Windows, and Mac OS. That's pretty much the whole market.

    • Unsustainable? Not hardly (Score:5, Informative)

      by Ethelred Unraed ( 32954 ) * on Saturday December 18, 2004 @07:02PM (#11126794) Journal
      The Mindawn Player [mindawn.com] runs on Mac OS X, Linux and Windows, and is really only needed for previewing songs (you can also buy via the website). Thus all three major platforms are fully supported.

      The other point is that yes, the number of tracks available is small. But Mindawn is actively looking for new and independent artists [mindawn.com] -- think of the site as a kind of CaféPress for music geeks, though of course some big-name artists (such as James LaBrie [mindawn.com] from DreamTheater) are coming soon.

      Cheers,

      Ethelred

    • Re:Unsustainable (Score:2, Insightful)

      by MrDomino ( 799876 )
      Because as we all know, it's virtually impossible to run Linux software on [cygwin.com] any [bb4win.org] other [openoffice.org] systems [sf.net].
    • I thought I heard that theKompany was in bad financial shape a while back. Seems like I read where they had developers who hadn't been paid in a while, that kind of thing (hopefully I'm wrong.) They make a decent line of software for the Zaurus, which is how I came to know about them.
    • there's virtually no way possible to grow this thing into a usable service if your customer base is that tiny.

      I'm sure we all remember how the iPod and iTunes failed miserably, because their customer-base (Mac users) was so small.

      They tried to expand their market with Windows compatibility, but by then it was too late, and Apple went out of business...
    • Where they could do good business is in the field of classical music. There are lots of talented musicians around playing high quality classical music that's way out of copyright. As yet there's no easy way to

      And it's seriously hard to get classical music through online services without through the nose (particularly if you want an ogg format).

      I've been trying to get a version of Mendelssohn's Octet from various file share systems for weeks (not continuously - but every time I do bittorrent stuff or log o

  • This brought to you by the letter... (Score:4, Funny)

    by ThePatrioticFuck ( 640185 ) on Saturday December 18, 2004 @06:19PM (#11126574)
    My god people, there are other letters in the alphabet besides 'K'! Use them!
  • It seems to me that the idea of targeting desktop Linux users is a marketing ploy to a niche market.

    However, you can already use a service like this. It's called AllOfMp3 [allofmp3.com]. You choose the format (MP3, WMA, OGG Vorbis, MPEG-4 AAC, MPC) and the bitrate (even lossless), and you're charged a penny per meg (well, 2 pennies per meg after Jan. 15).
  • Many of us have been waiting for something like this, but its almost certain that no major record label will agree to this. This might be a good thing for indie artists and upcoming artists.
    • And what happens to indies and "upcoming artists?"

      Don't forget we're pretty much less than a decade into this whole "download music" thing. Already there have been entire albums released only on the internet and have become "online hits" despite providing their creators no income. Just ask around and see how many hiphop fans have "the gray album."

      The system WILl change. Artists will quickly realize the creative benefits of avoiding the major labels, the labels will end up being second tier distribution m
  • Okay, I listen to a lot of independent and new music, but I've never heard of ANY of their top 10 tracks. I'm sorry, but this doesn't beat the iTMS in my book. No recognizable artists on their front page or promoting the site from what I can see. Come on, this isn't the only music store that supports linux. Yet another lame ass front-page story on /.

  • The service appears to be similar to what Magnatune [magnatune.com] offers. Magnatune is a record label that signs artists and offers an honest preview. Files are available for purchase in various formats, mp3, wav, ogg, vbr and also (from memory) flac. You can download one format or all, it's your choice.

    I've tried the service, downloaded the formats I wanted and there is no catch to it.
    While the selection on Magnatune may be considered limited it should improve with time.

  • I have a lot of respect for what they are trying to do with Mindawn, but what advantage do they have over other non-drm download services? For example, Magnatune has a larger selection, about a dozen different formats and bit rates available, and you can volunteer to pay more or less for an album based on how much you think it's worth. I can't even buy a track off Mindawn and put it on my MP3 player without reencoding it. What's the point of non-DRMed music if you can't get it in a popular format?
    • The point is that mp3 is a patented format and that Mindawn has decided to send a signal to the music industry and to potential customers.

      There are so many people who often say if there as a service that offered ogg vorbis at reasonable rates, I'd be there in a heartbeat.Well, it's here and you can even sample the songs before you buy.

      I hate whiners, and gloom and doom people. Give these guys a chance. They are trying to do the right thing!
  • Isn't that what they call... the CIA?

  • Mindawn is Doomed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by 0x0000 ( 140863 ) <zerohex@ze r o h e x.com> on Saturday December 18, 2004 @06:41PM (#11126697) Homepage

    Did Mindawn/theKompany not pay any attention to what happened to to mp3.com?

    About the time mp3.com started to make money they were purchased by an RIAA member mega-corp. They were embraced, and extended - assimilated and unltimately destroyed both as an outlet for artists and as a corporate entity.

    The music industry will not tolerate un-affiliated (independant) success any more than the political industry will. If an independant shows signs of gaining traction with the public - of getting a following - that independant will purchased by one of the RIAA mega-corps and shut down. If they don't gain a following, they'll simply go bankrupt and shut down.

    Either way, no non-RIAA company can compete in the industry, and no dissenting (unsigned) artist stands a (statisticly significant) chance of success. That's why what the insdustry is doing is called "racketeering" and that's why the music industry as we know it must be destroyed before Capitalism (competition) can have an effect...

    You can't win if you're playing with their ball and by their rules.

    • But Michael Robertson did make some money out of it, and that, at the end of the day, is what business is about.
    • "Did Mindawn/theKompany not pay any attention to what happened to to mp3.com?"

      Well obviously they did. My memory of MP3.com was that they did a shitload of record-selling, and made the purchase of music palatable to many people who would rather blockade a record store than buy things from it.

      They sold to people who thought £17 ($35?) per CD was too much. They sold to people who'd never heard of the bands they played before. They sold to people who developed new tastes in music, as they could previ

      • Huh?

        I just wish more people would learn the lessons from MP3.com

        Actually, I was referring more to the "what happened to part" than to the MP3.com business model. MP3.com was destroyed by the "music industry" leaving thousands of independant artists without an outlet, and millions of consumers without recourse against the RIAA. I'm wondering what is going to stop RIAA from taking similar action against Midawn?

        • "Actually, I was referring more to the "what happened to part" than to the MP3.com business model. MP3.com was destroyed by the "music industry"

          But is that true, verifiable, and significant? I often hear claims that MP3.com was killed, and I've no doubt that there were lots of people with the money and desire to do so. However, I'm not convinced.

          "[MP3.com] was shut down on 2 December 2003 after being purchased by CNET" [wikipedia.org]

          Even being cynical and suspicious (which I am, definitely), that looks like CNET j

          • But is that true, verifiable, and significant?

            I guess that depend on how closely you want to look. If you look only at the CNET puchase, you won't verify much. If you go back a little further you will find that CNET purchased mp3.com from Viacom. Ask how Viacom got it.

            Even being cynical and suspicious (which I am, definitely)

            I'm sorry, but if you didn't even bother to check who CNET got it from, and where they got it, and who owns CNET, you just don't fit my definition of either cynical or susp

  • as a distributor I can tell you there are LOTS! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by linuxbaby ( 124641 ) on Saturday December 18, 2004 @06:53PM (#11126749)
    We [cdbaby.net] are one of the distributors of all the digital music for these companies. (iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, etc.)

    Really only the big guys are using DRM. There are lots of other smaller independent digital retailers selling music with no DRM at all. We send them the albums in FLAC, MP3, or OGG format.

    Check out this list of companies [cdbaby.net] that we distribute to. There's a link to each, and all of them have (or will have) the entire CD Baby Digital Distribution catalog of 30,000 albums (350,000 songs).

  • Seems like you can't please some people at all... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ngunton ( 460215 ) on Saturday December 18, 2004 @07:00PM (#11126789) Homepage
    I see a lot of comments along the lines of "there's not enough selection", "it'll never work as a business model", "Can't do it without the major labels", et cetera ad nauseam.

    I guess I am just starting to get rather irritated with the sense of spoiled entitlement that many in the "open source" linux world seem to have these days. They expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter, free, or else it must be crap and doomed to failure.

    Whenever we hear about the latest shenanigans by the RIAA or MPAA, we hear a chorus of shrieks and wails bemoaning the fact that there are no "fair" music services out there that are unencumbered by the DRM mess.

    Well, here we are: A guy actually stepped up and started something that seems to provide a very reasonable service: Songs you can download without any restrictions on subsequent use, for a very reasonable fee. And (this is what kills me) he even caters directly to Linux users. But still we hear a chorus of complaints. There isn't enough selection? He just started for crying out loud! Give him a chance to build the thing. I've often wondered myself why someone couldn't do just this sort of thing for the independent artists, just a really straightforward service that charges reasonable fees, doesn't try to screw the customer and rewards the artists. Here it is! He's trying to do it.

    Here's an idea: Be grateful, try it, give him feedback, help him make it work. This is what you've been waiting for.

    I don't know, sometimes I read Slashdot these days and all I see is people who want everything handed to them on a silver platter. They want everything for free, and if it isn't Open Source then it must be spawn of the devil. Unless, that is, it's Google.

    I say, good luck to this guy, he's trying to do something that seems to be very worthwhile.

    Just my opinion.
  • Too bad it has problems like pre-echo artifacts http://www.google.com/search?q=OGG+echo+artifacts& ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 [google.com] and is not supported by most portable music players.

    This place has worse selection than even http://www.emusic.com/ [emusic.com].

  • Everyone knows that the only reason people use Linux is because we don't like paying for things - what makes anyone think we are going to start paying for music?

    *tsk*

  • Preview idiocy (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Bob Ince ( 79199 ) <and@@@doxdesk...com> on Saturday December 18, 2004 @08:13PM (#11127126) Homepage
    Crap. So *nearly* the Right Thing, and then fumbled at the last hurdle.

    DRM-free downloads? Check. Platform-agnosticism? Check. Good choice of file formats? Check. Looking good. Might spend some money here if the tracks are any good.

    So, are the tracks any good? Er. Where's the 'listen' button? Erm... [reads FAQ] so I have to sign up to the service and download and install a special application, just to see if there's anything I want to listen to. Aha.

    Nope. Can't be bothered. Gone. Bye.

    When you're launching a new web service it's vital to make it easy for uncommitted potential new users to slip into using your services easily, bit by bit.

    This feature, however, is a great big roadblock to discourage potential customers. A simple link to an excessively-compressed or partial MP3 preview file would have been easier for everyone.
  • don't hold your breath for a reliable functional product.
  • ...a new music download service was launched recently by theKompany.com that, unlike iTunes and Napster, targets Linux desktops.

    And that's why it'll fail.

  • The site has no privacy policy and requires your address before you can register. Not quite ready for primetime.

    I will say that someone offering a .deb download and .ogg and .flac audio files with no DRM is absolutely amazingly right on! Now just tack up a legal page where you explain that you'll never ever, unless required by subpoena, turn over my personal information, and we can do business.

    I hate to gripe more, but I'd like to know how the player/preview app is licensed before installing it. Apparen

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