SkyTunes coming soon

[NewsreadeR]

Further to our news regarding Sky and Universal Music Group

Unofficially the project is tagged 'SkyTunes' which could be subject to change. What is astounding, (or a complete lack of originality in my eyes) is how Sky are calling everything they are launching, very similar to already existing products.

First we had the imaginative, 'SkyPlayer' similar to 'iPlayer' and now we have 'SkyTunes' which is glaringly obvious to be similar to 'iTunes' Do the people who work on these projects have absolutely no imagination?

I would assume that Sky are doing this to cash in on the already existing vendors, BBC and Apple, hoping that the names Sky have chosen will be just as brandable.

The other observation I would make, Sky have recently announced that Max is now 'truly unlimited' as well as the fact that Sky Sign Up With BPI To Help Stop Piracy, therefore Sky now have the perfect platform to launch a music service. People can now hammer their connections, downloading all the legal music they could want, without fear of being caught by the BPI. However, at a monthly subscription cost.

There are no figures quoted to us for the subscription rates, and what is not clear is, (if Sky are selling the tracks) that they are infact DRM free.

If this project is to include the ability to buy tracks and not just effectively rent the songs, to remain competitive, Sky would have to pitch between 50p to £1 a tune, to purchase your chosen song. iTunes charge roughly 79p a track, (with DRM) whereas newbies 7digital charge approx. 99p per MP3. (with no DRM) For myself, who buys a lot of music, the extra 20p 7digital charge is well worth the loss of DRM.

If the project is rental only, Sky would need to pitch below the £14.95 per month that Napster currently charge, to get my business. Napster is easy to use, established and has millions of tracks, which are all unlimited to download / stream, whilst your subscription is active. The other thing I would have to consider, I have already spent hundreds subscribing, as well as having to redownload them all again. And thats if Sky were to offer the same selection. Otherwise if I were to subscribe, I bet the the total I pay for subscriptions to music services would be approaching the £30 a month charge. Suddenly, my cheap broadband offering has now gone to £40 pm.

Our unofficial source quotes,

The number of tracks you buy to keep will be based upon the subscription that you take out, with unlimited streaming of tracks from the record labels' back catalogue.

Different album and tracks will be graded according to how recent they are, eg. if The Prodigy released a smash hit new album, it would be prime content attracting a higher price. If Samantha Fox released one, it would be a much lower price.

However The Prodigy wouldn't quite look the same on Page 3 of The Sun.

[Alan b]

Originally Posted by NewsreadeR

First we had the imaginative, 'SkyPlayer' similar to 'iPlayer' and now we have 'SkyTunes' which is glaringly obvious to be similar to 'iTunes' Do the people who work on these projects have absolutely no imagination?

You have answered this yourself. People will be familiar with the BBC Iplayer and Itunes so Sky have simply tapped into this market with the choice of names.

I would assume that Sky are doing this to cash in on the already existing vendors, BBC and Apple, hoping that the names Sky have chosen will be just as brandable.

[NewsreadeR]

Well, to succeed, Sky need to be unique, and imaginative, and easy to use, neither of which, SkyTunes or SkyPlayer is imho.

Look what happened to Sky Cast, Sky thought they could take on YouTube.

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[SatDish]

but don't worry, we're not disappearing!

Shame lol

[skypaulusplus]

soon therel be a portable mp3/4 player called the skypod
a mobile phone with 3g and streaming tv called the skyphone
and the network will only be skymobile ran off o2s infrastructure and everything as a package will be called sky total(mentioned in one of my posts) and everythink will connect to the v3 router and sky shd box(super high def on the new not long ago)
boo yah

[iKennett]

Waste of time...... however I can see why Sky would want to give it a try.

As mentioned before they need a skypod and skyphone, it does get to a point when you need to focus on your core business not this add on crap!

Sky need to figure out if they can add any value to the music market, I personally don't think they can.

Sky have 3 main business TV, Talk & Broadband and they should stick to it!

[reddwarfcrew]

I'd like to see sky deliver this sort of thing thru a partnership (akin to the google one). This means the partner can concentrate on the development of what they are good at and sky can do the same with the end consumer benefiting.

[skypaulusplus]

virgin hav tv ,broadband , phone and mobile sky are always trying to beat them with tv and broadband so ...enjoy great sky talk rates on the go with brand new sky talk mobile running o the t-mobile infrastructure ,... like virgin