Kazaa Resurrected, Rebooted
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: Kazaa, Music, iTunes, DRM | Themes: The Internet, Software, Digital Entertainment
Kazaa has returned as a legal music subscription service.
Kazaa, a widely popular P2P service years ago, has been resurrected and rebooted, now surfacing as a legal download music service rather then retaining its notorious illegal file-sharing theme. Digital Journal is reporting that Altnet and parent company Brilliant Digital Entertainment will offer songs and ringtones from all four of the major recording companies through a subscription service plastered with the Kazaa label.
Launching with one million legalized songs, the new Kazaa subscription service can be paid in two ways: through a credit card or included in the subscriber's monthly phone bill. According to the Kazaa website, the service will offer unlimited downloads for $20 per month, throwing out the "per song" download fee. For now, Kazaa remains in its beta stage, and has been available for the last several months.
"This is the next step. In the next six months, you'll see a premium version of this player. With that, you'll also see some sexy applications added to the Kazaa player," said Sharman Networks' CEO Nikki Hemming. Sharman purchased Kazaa back in January and revealed last week its Internet advertising deal with Double Click.
While unlimited downloads may seem like a good bargain for $20 per month, the music is not DRM-free. The service only supports PCs as well, leaving Linux and Mac users--including iPhone and iPod owners--out of the loop. Once subscribers cancel their accounts, the music is no longer available.
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Paying $20 per month to rent even unlimited music doesn't seem like a great deal. Just another experiment by the recording industry to see what kind of digital distribution consumers will tolerate.
Who cares? Like Lime Wire, no one.
Will this be riddled with spyware/malware too?
Who cares? Like Lime Wire, no one.
my sister used lime wire, hers is one of those computers I have to fix on a regular basis
Kazaa? I remember that bullsh.it, it would install, then you'd run ad-aware and remove the 200 instances of spyware it installed, then when you tried to run Kazaa, it would give you an error message bit.ching about how you uninstalled it's spyware and refuse to run. Of course, these idiots are bragging about their relationship with Double-Click, so it's not surprising.
Yours Truly,
Internet Privacy Advocate
So, again PC isn't fit for Linux/MAC? As long as I known, PC means the hardware, not for Windows..
Rhapsody exists.
Why do they insist on stealing the names of p2p programs so they can use them on legal activities? Do they think we'll be so stupid as to just pay for the name?
Do they think we'll be so stupid as to just pay for the name?
Yes... yes they do.
And they're right!
my sister used lime wire, hers is one of those computers I have to fix on a regular basis
I refuse to work on anybody's computer if they have been using lime wire. It's the venereal disease of online computing.
Renting DRM music at that price - screw them. Just goes to show that the mafIAA still just don't get it!
My contempt for this seedy industry deepens further.
Kazaa has been "resurrected" before, it failed. Kazaa and Limewire are and always have been garbage compared to other methods. Enough said.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... seriously...
I really could care less about Kazaa's return or whatever. Napster did the same thing. Guess what: I still get my music for free elsewhere.
Who cares? Like Lime Wire, no one.
unlike some people here, i did like limewire, i just knew how to keep my computer from getting all the crap that came with the program. however, i have verizon FIOS, and as with any verizon internet package, we unfortunately have access to the gauntla network anymore, seeing as some internet providers are banning it. still, i will never stoop to buying DRM music, or any music for that matter.
Now this just made me go to TPB.
STEAL EVERYTHING AND LEAVE NOTHING BEHIND
$20 per month is a horrible deal. You get unlimited downloads with Zune Pass for $15 a month and you get to permanently keep 10 DRM free songs per month.
I care about as much about fake-Kazaa as I do about fake-Napster.
It kind of feels like they have hauled the dead carcasses of their defeated enemies onto a flagpole and are waving it around in some kind of macabre dance.
They are dead... you killed them, we wont be fooled into thinking they are the same thing...
they expect us to pay $20 to rent songs and as a bonus get spyware at the same time? great business strategy.
It's not such a bad deal for some people. At least the music industry is finally trying something other than suing people.
Even if it fails, it's a good start.
fss
ig frikin deal, no1 cares. OMG OMG KAZAAA lets all go there and pay for music. Fss
Are their marketing people that stupid? Nobody has fond memories of Kazaa. Spam, malware, and crap.
My God, they want you to rent the music??? Thats retarded.
Once subscribers cancel their accounts, the music is no longer available.
uh, stupid...
why is this so weird? Isnt this what Netflix does?
= not a good deal.
I'd rather buy a physical album per month / 12 a year.
Thats pretty much 20 songs a month x 12 months = 240 songs a year yours to keep on itunes or downloading from amazon etc. and no dissapearing act later on.
It's trying to go on a name nobody cares about anymore. And, DRM + loss after quitting your subscription? There are much better deals out there.
To me it just sounds like an expensive way to test out music you've never heard before. Hah, and, well, we have Youtube that does it for free, sometimes with MVs too. Screw this.
I'll be buying from iTunes still.
Lol kazaa for $20/mo no thanks, it was even bad when it was $0/mo. Some of their apps were loaded with malware back in those days and one would have to find the lite version and hope it wasn't a trojan horse itself. I didn't realize kazaa even went down. Like piratebay, I don't really use kazaa any more.
lol @ people who liked limewire. that's like the AOL of file sharing (aka army of lamers in this case). I remember searching it a while back and finding a plethora of fake files and possibly packaged trojans. That's one that I barely even gave a chance to use due to that.
why is this so weird? Isnt this what Netflix does?
Maybe that's the theory behind it, but I don't think the neflix model will work for music. We've always rented videos, we've never rented music.