By August, music will be available in size zero

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raksrules

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Mumbai: Music packaging is all set to take a cue from Bollywood’s bombshells—come August, it will also be available in size zero. Says music kingpin Bhushan Kumar of T-Series, which controls a sizeable slice of the Bollywood music pie, “Get ready for a pleasant surprise. Music will now have a new shape.’’
The new shape—the pen drive and the micro chip—is totally in tune with GenNext lifestyles, says Bhushan, who initiated R&D in the concept over a year ago. “The music market is getting younger, and digital platforms are the in thing,’’ he says. “With mobile memory chips, you can carry music on your phone; pen drives can be used on laptops and even car audio systems.’’ T-Series will kick-start the pen drive movement with A R Rahman’s track for Blue in August/September.
A music industry source says that new releases will come on a 1 GB pen drive along with older titles from the company; there will also be free space for the user to download music of his choice. Kumar Taurani of Tips, the other big player on the Bollywood music scene, believes the move will revolutionise the music industry. “Music companies can monetise this by releasing their entire past libraries in the new format,’’ he says.
Sony Music, HMV-Sa Re Ga Ma and Junglee Music are some of the other players in Bollywood who are studying the feasibility of introducing pen drives/memory chips. Mobile giant Nokia, in association with T-Series, is also launching a memory chip that will have the latest songs and will come free with certain music phone models.
While flash drives or pen drives with legal music have proved to be a hit abroad, will this work in India, given the higher price tag as compared to a CD or cassette? Market sources say that right now, none of the companies in the fray are factoring in a profit margin—the aim is to entice buyers and build up a consumer bank. Bhushan, on his part, is optimistic that the step will change music consumption to a great degree.
“Several music companies are looking to do this, as this is the way to go. As holders of music rights we were foreseeing this. It will certainly give a boost to the music industry. It will also curb piracy to an extent as those who presently download from the Net will have access to original music in digital format,’’ says Priti Shahni of Indian films.

Source: Page 4 Times Of India Mumbai Edition - 29th July 2009
 
Yeah, soon you will have a bunch of pen drives lying around. I could see transferring media to their portable devices from authorized outlets at low prices have some success but this isn't going to change anything. Another aspect is how all these companies are wasting plastic and paper when those things have clearly become redundant in terms of entertainment.
 
instead of selling music through pen drives they should use micro sdcards or give downloads in some lossless format like flac or wmv lossless. downloads would be more popular i think since people downloading them will most likely be younger generation with access to comps. micro sdcards can easily be put in many cellphones nowdays.
 
Well.....think on a mass scale. How many people have gear that can play FLAC beside PCs. People consume music using various devices.

Though I completely agree with providing a higher quality audio track. I think a high bit-rate track can easily translate to better audio quality on most players, that is perceivable to the common man.
 
They will provide 320 Kbps songs of the main movie which will occupy like less than 100 MB and rest of the space will be used for some old songs. I suppose keeping a price of like Rs. 5 - 10 per song download is a great idea. What if i dont like the whole album but want only one or say two songs.

Also i wonder what kind of security (read copy protection) they plan on putting on their pen drives as having songs in these will be just more simpler to copy from one machine to another and will save the time and effort on ripping the disc.
 
According to you is Rs. 10 per song a good idea? The problem is that most of these providers just give you the 128 kbps songs for Rs. 10/15/20. which is not a good deal IMHO.
 
^^ That was just an example. I am not into legitimate song downloading :ohyeah: and hence dont know what price point is better for a song / album for download purpose. But yes, something like Rs. X for one song is a good idea but it has to be 320 kbps ones and not 128 kbps.
 
I dont think the high-bit rate should be an issue, as the pen drive's capacity is 1 GB. And I guess that will be one of the biggest factor after ethics or as a matter of fact...before ethics....to get legit music.......
 
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