Sony has been notoriously awful in regard to how they have treated their contracted artists. Prince changed his name to a symbol in order to get out of his contract(s) with Sony. Sony owned Prince, but not the "Symbol". Same with Mariah Carey. Recall her "meltdown" years ago? It wasn't a melt down. She was contracted with Sony, and in the footsteps of Prince and many others, found a loophole. After her "breakdown", Sony bought out the rest of her contract, then she immediately signed with Virgin Records. In the course of one year, she made over $70 million (maybe more).
My friend André used to work for Sony's music division in NYC, the things he would tell me. I have no respect for them and my last Sony electronic purchase was the Trinitron 27" television. That was in 1999. I couldn't care less on this matter, if Sony doesn't meet Apple halfway, their arrogance will become a self-filling prophecy of demise.
In 1993, Prince was fed up with his label, Warner Bros. They wanted him to release fewer CDs so he wouldn't flood the market and they could better promote him. He couldn't get out of his contract, but he could change his name to an unpronounceable symbol, largely to mess with them. Journalists started to call him "the artist formerly known as Prince," but in 2000 he went back to Prince when his Warner contract expired.
I doubt the average person would go for it then. It would have to offer something better than what is offered to justify an added bill.
Then again, I now pay ~$96 a year for Netflix, whereas before I didn't even have cable or a TV, and payed less than that on DVDs/iTunes TV shows each year so maybe not...
iRadio. iRollercoaster. iEverything... except no new computers. No new software. No support for Flash. Well done, Apple.
So they don't think you should be allowed to dislike music? WTF.
0 People using it means 0 skips. Does it matter Sony?
Skip songs limit? Its 2013. The tweens wont approve of this. Get with the times apple. Choice is a good thing. Give uf a spotify model, that plus itunes match and the itunes content would beat everything else out there.
Will iRadio allow me to listen to what I want and offline? I'm not familiar with Pandora as it's not available in the UK.![]()
It's hilarious that the company who overcharges for everything is being so cheap. Open the wallet, Apple. Not like it matters, Spotify, Google, and Microsoft already have infinitely superior music services than this. Late to the party, and deficient. Bad combo.
So they don't think you should be allowed to dislike music? WTF.
They want to get paid for the songs people don't listen to? Of all the money grubbing, piece of greedy crap moves, this is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of. Launch without them. I can see how the other music labels are getting pissed, its like being able to listen to the radio and just click to buy what you are listening to. Thats worth a billion times what Pandora and Spotify do. Sony is showing us once again how pathetic they have become.
.....The music and movie labels are the most annoying companies in America when it comes to the entertainment industry.
No, it is Apple that thinks they should get to use Sony's property for free.
----------
Being able to skip songs is a feature like being able to skip commercials with a DVR or block ads in web pages. Why should Apple get this awesome feature in their service for free.
Whats wrong with a formula such as:
Payment = Standard Fee * (Played Length/Total Length)