Legal music downloads via Grammy's iKey
More cross-platform choices are in store for digital music listeners, as for the first time since iKey's launch last November, non-iTunes users can download their favourite sounds onto their iPod
In a three-month pilot project by GMM Digital Domain (GMMD) - a subsidiary of GMM Grammy - and Apple Thailand, consumers will be able to download 20,000 songs legally from a library through Grammy's iKey. Differences in file types and software locks have long barred users from legally loading any local music content onto Apple's best-selling proprietary music players. In addition, iTunes' online shop is only available to 22 countries around the world and that does not include Thailand, Nirundorn Tanongsakmontri, GMMD's senior director for the Internet business, said yesterday. The partnership means that users can buy music online and offline at 13 authorised premium Apple resellers in Bangkok and Phuket. To encourage users to turn away from pirated MP3 CDs, GMMD will offer songs at the higher quality rate of 192 kilobits per second as opposed to the 128kbps commonly found in the market. Downloaded albums will also come with a CD cover and lyrics. Nirundorn said iKey has attracted about 30,000 active users and about 100,000 one-off buyers. iKey can be downloaded onto mobile phones as well as MP3 players. It will soon be available in all cellular service provider shops. GMMD is also negotiating with six major local websites to distribute its digital content, including music videos, television shows and movies. Insights into how locals consume digital entertainment are limited, but the three-month trial will be GMMD's attempt to study consumer behaviour. But the offline market - for instance, downloading at mobile phone or Apple shops - will be much greater, he said. Mobile-phone users number at least 30 million and only about 10 million of them have ever downloaded any music onto their handset, he added. The music industry was shaken when music giant EMI on Monday took digital rights management (DRM) off all their songs and started selling them at a premium over DRM tracks. DRM ensures that downloaded songs cannot be passed on to other MP3 players or burned into too many CDs. Apple often comes under criticism for its DRM tracks - "unfair market manipulation", wrote Bill Thompson for the BBC News website - which require consumers to use all-things Mac. With the digital music market here still in its infancy, Nirundorn expects to rally only about 100,000 iKey users.
Ki Nan Tsui The Nation
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