Online Music: Downloading
You Get What You Need
NEWSWEEK
Aug. 25 issue — Though legal online music operations have made impressive strides in the last year, Net music fans still gripe about holes in their digital lineups. The two most glaring omissions: the Beatles and the Stones. Now one of the big two is going digital. Starting this week, in conjunction with a promotion with Best Buy electronics stores, the Rhapsody music service is offering all the songs of Jagger, Richards and band. Subscribers to the service—recently acquired by RealNetworks—can now listen to more than 500 Stones songs on their computers. “You can go for 40 hours,” says RealNetwork’s Sean Ryan.
BUT IT’S COMPLICATED. The pre-1971 Stones catalog—with all those great ’60s singles—is controlled by legendary mogul Allen Klein’s ABKCO company. The later songs—including the peaks and valleys of the ’70s and the creative trough thereafter—are owned by EMI/Virgin. EMI, with the Stones’ blessing, is happy to both “stream” the songs (letting customers listen to them jukebox style) and to sell the songs online. Klein has been wary of the Internet, and ABKCO is authorizing only streaming of its Stones songs. It’s an odd stance: by denying customers a way to legally download “Satisfaction,” you drive them to a beggar’s banquet—pirate services like Morpheus or Kazaa, where moochers can get the song free of charge.
The deal emphasizes the value of a subscription service like Rhapsody, which uses streaming technology to allow customers to listen to all they want, as much as they want—as long as they keep subscribing. It’s also a dis of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who personally wooed Jagger to get first crack at the Stones on his iTunes service. But since Rhapsody has only a two-week exclusive, EMI will soon license its catalog to Apple and others. As for the early tunes, you can’t always get want you want—unless you steal it.
—Steven Levy
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