Tag: virgin
Virgin and Universal team up to offer unlimited music package
Virgin Media has announced that they have signed a deal with Universal Music to offer their customers an unlimited digital music service.
The move, which sounds a darned sized better than previous digital music services such asNokias Comes With Music, would mean users get unlimited access to DRM-free mp3s of Universal artists for a monthly fee, rumoured to be around £10-15. Users would be free to store these mp3s on any players of their choice.
Universal Music owns a huge number of record labels and artists available in the service will include the likes of Kanye West, Jack Johnson, U2 and Elton John. Virgin are also said to be in talks with other record companies.
The only snag is that you have to be a Virgin broadband customer in order to use the service. If successful though, hopefully other ISPs will get involved or similar services will be set up.
This news comes a day before Lord Carter’s digital review is due to be published. In it, he is expected to call for ISPs to offer more attractive options to music fans than illegal downloads. Virgin’s package will seemingly do just do that.
Virgin has also announced that it would be doing more to prevent illegal downloads via its network. They’re talking about educating users and may suspend Internet access for persistent offenders.
It will be interesting to see how other ISPs respond to this news and how they respond to Lord Carter’s report in general. It’s obvious that illegal downloading is a big issue at the moment.
Hats off to Virgin for being the first out of the blocks in response.
(via Reuters)
RUMOUR: Virgin Media 50Mbps cable in a few weeks?
ThinkBroadband are reporting that a poster to their forums has leaked some info regarding a 50Mbps product from Virgin Media on their cable broadband network. The rollout is apparently due to start in “two weeks”, and should be completed by April 2009.
Price-wise the service won’t be cheap, with 50Mbps setting you back £52 a month. It’s purported to be a mandatory 12 month contract too, meaning you’ll be dropping £624 over the year on your extra-fast broadband, before any setup or connection fees…
UK ISPs and the music industry agree to act on piracy – strongly-worded letters on the way
The extermination plans have been finalised – six of the UK’s largest ISPs have agreed to crack down on music piracy by, er, sending out some letters.
The deal, partially negotiated by the government, will see “hundreds of thousands of letters” sent by ISPs to their users who are currently sharing a massive folder of music with who ever else happens to be using the internet at the same time.
BT, Virgin, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse have signed up to the stern-letter-sending programme, something that Virgin’s already…
Up close with the Sony BRAVIA range: Part 5: Top of the range
In the last four parts of the series, we’ve looked at a variety of features found across the entire BRAVIA range of TVs.
There’s generally a BRAVIA TV to suit most price ranges, but for the ultimate viewing experience, going “top of the range” offers a plethora of cutting edge features designed to maximise the viewing experience…
Branson and Google team up… and play the best April Fools trick
At yesterday’s CITA Wireless Trade Show, Sir Richard Branson used his keynote to announce a prank partnership with Google, whose purpose is to build a solar-powered spaceship that will take 30 passengers on a one-way trip to Mars…
Virgin Media claims to boost Britain’s broadband speeds
Virgin claims it is upgrading its broadband services, with customers on Virgin Media’s ‘L’ tier broadband package upgraded for free from 4MB to 10MB during a gradual roll out that starts from February and should be complete late summer. Virgin will also be trialling a 50MB service during 2008.
Shiny Video Review: Pink Fly Mobile SLT 100 and SL399E handsets
Ok, so it *might* be pink, but judging by the amount of entries I’ve been receiving from women the past week I’ve been running our Christmas give-aways, we have a lot more female readers than first thought. Don’t start expecting pink fluffy iPod covers girls, but I’ll indulge you in these two new mobiles from Fly.
Both handsets are available from Virgin…
Sky warned over broadband speed claims – had better not do it again or else
Virgin Media and two members of the public complained to the Advertising Standards Authority over a Sky Broadband advert which boasted its service is faster than Virgin’s.
Being a Virgin Media broadband user myself I can attest that it almost certainly is, as is a letter taped to the back of a tortoise, but that’s…
Virgin Digital music subscription/download site closing down
Virgin has announced that its Virgin Digital music service is to close down on 19th October. From this Friday, no more music tracks will be sold, with site access limited to Club members only — who get streaming and "rental"…
Opinion: HMV need more than gimmicks to attract kids to "cyber store"
Quick quiz now – do you still buy CDs on the high street? I rarely do these days, unless it’s an impulse buy in a sale as I browse, but then I don’t get much time to do that either like I used to. Let’s face it, we’re a cash rich, time poor society now and that means one thing – the Internet!
I’m not going to spit out the obvious downloading facts and figures that we all already know, digital music is big business and only a miniscule percentage of people reading this will never have bought or “found” a music track via the web…
