free legal downloads coming

[tardis3]

Reprinted from Herald Sun

AUSTRALIANS will soon be able to legally download music, movies and their favourite TV shows via the internet for free - as long as they are prepared to put up with advertising.

Australian-based company Guvera is to launch a radical solution that promises to shake up the global online music landscape.

From March 30, visitors to Guvera.com will be able to search for and download digital music at no cost, without fear of falling foul of internet piracy watchdogs.

The service charts a new course between paid music download websites such as iTunes and illegal P2P file-sharing services such as Limewire, which allow users to swap files across the net.

Guvera founder Claes Loberg said his approach for the first time delivered free content to visitors while ensuring record companies and artists were not out of pocket.

This has been made possible through advertisers such as McDonald's, Harley-Davidson and Pepsi paying a fee when a visitor downloads music, a percentage of which goes to record companies, which in turn is distributed to artists.

But rather than being confronted by intrusive ads likely to turn visitors off, Guvera users instead click on branded "channels" tailored to their own tastes before searching for their music.

Consumers must provide details on their preferences, allowing advertisers to tailor their offerings to better connect with their target demographic.

"Before Guvera.com there were two options to get music online - steal or pay," said Mr Loberg.

"With over 95 per cent of online music downloads illegal, it seems people won't pay if there is a free alternative.

"Guvera offers a free and legal alternative that's user-friendly."

Currently in test mode, there are 300,000 songs now available on the site. That number is expected to swell to more than three million. Among the major music labels to have signed up are EMI and Universal.

While initially concentrating on music, the site will eventually expand its free digital downloads to include movies and TV shows.

Great news

Paul Cashmere, CEO of music industry news website Undercover, described the arrival of Guvera as "a fantastic development".

"It's great news for the music industry because what it does is give people an alternative to stealing music," he said.

"It is creating a legal platform for people to download music without having to pay for it, but the artists are still being rewarded because they're being paid by the advertiser, so it's a win-win situation all round."

Mr Cashmere said a generation of Australians had grown up over the past decade knowing no way to access music online other than illegally.

[Musketeer]

My Guvera account got activated early this week and I have been trying it out. At this stage the selection is pretty small. You can search or browse music, then pick a track you want. You will then be asked to pick a "sponsor" from a list of companies, e.g. McDonalds. Clicking this takes you to a McDonald's page - still within the Guvera site - where the song you want, plus other 'suggested tracks' are listed along side ads for McDonalds (static - not video or audio). You can then stream or download the song you wanted, courtesy of the sponsor.

End result is you get a free 256k MP3 of the song, just for clicking on to a McDonald's page. Its not particularly intrusive, because you're not forced to watch or listen to an ad, the whole download page is simply a visual ad. I really wonder if this is sustainable though. Are our eyeballs really so valuable that just glancing at a static advert is enough to pay for my song?

I'm not entirely sure if this idea will take off, but I wish Guvera the best of luck, its great to see someone at least trying to make a new, innovative distribution model work. Even better that its a local company.

[Musketeer]

I haven't really gotten in to Guvera, but I came across a great streaming only site. These sorts of things always seem to be crippled or locked off to Australians, but for once one isn't: Grooveshark

http://listen.grooveshark.com/

Type in an artist or song title, click and listen!

I liked it so much I subscribed ($36 USD for the year) and so can use the desktop app rather than the browser and also have an app on my Samsung mobile for when I'm out and about.

Its pretty good, so get in while you can. We should take bets on how long it is before they close off access to Australia!