Sky Music

It’s nice to read a rumour chain that doesn’t involve the new iPhone - instead Sky has made the headlines as the rumours start to pile in about the possible new service they are preparing to deliver - “Sky Songs”.

Sky Songs is the name being given to the collaboration between BSkyB and Universal Music to provide music to the masses.� Being one of the world’s largest record labels collaborating with one of the world’s most influential media powerhouses, we should be expecting great things.

There are expected to be four main tariffs offered to potential customers where each service provides unlimited streaming of music with a specified bundle of downloads.

The Tariffs

If you want to be cheap you should be able to get hold of a tariff for as little as £4.99 per month.� For your fiver you get a rather pitiful 5 tracks (obviously accompanying your unlimited streaming).

If you want to spend the big bucks you can spend £11.99 where you will be given the option to download either 20 tracks or two complete albums (again accompanying your unlimited streaming).

Perhaps this doesn’t sound as appealing to the everyday music lover as Sky might have hoped - after all you can buy tracks to download from Amazon for as little as 29p and if you want to stream a song online you can find pretty much anything online through a quick Google search and you won’t be out of pocket at all.

Of course, this will be the legal option and if you don’t want to find yourself on the wrong side of the law, where the next step is drugs and public urination, then perhaps you should stick to an unlimited service like Sky Songs.

Label Benefits

Labels that come along for the ride with the service will be paid for the benefits of both the streaming service and the download service - for the streaming service the labels will get a fraction of a penny, and for the download service they will be receiving the usual industry rates.

The announcement of the collaboration last year sent shivers through the media world - both companies are leaders in their respective markets and feared strengths by other smaller businesses.

The Universal Music Group enjoys a firm grip of more than a staggering 30 per cent of the music market while Sky has more than 2 million subscribers in the United Kingdom where 15 per cent of the population uses the collection of television, telephone and broadband service bundle.

Although other companies are complaining about exclusionary tactics due to the collaboration, Sky are claiming that they are taking measures to allow other businesses to buy equity stakes in Sky Songs in an attempt to get them on board.

Will you?

Does such a collaboration interest and attract you to the service and will you be signing up when it comes out or will you be giving it a miss?� Let us know…