A Look at Some Filesharing Programs



iTunes Music Store

“In all, the iTunes Music Store offers music that’s fair to you, fair to artists and easy to enjoy.” (Apple Computer, Inc.)

The iTunes Music Store is a music purchasing system integrated into Apple’s iTunes music player. The store allows users to browse, preview, and purchase from a library of more than 700,000 songs. Each song costs 99 cents and includes the rights to burn unlimited CD’s including the song, unlimited use on Apple’s iPod portable music player, and use on up to five computers. Complete albums may be purchased at prices ranging from $7.99 to $12.99, though most are $9.99.

The store has several additional features, including:

· One-touch purchasing with multiple payment options: AOL wallet, credit card, gift card (available at Target), allowance accounts for children.
· Celebrity playlists: Celebrities and artists recommend songs available at the store.
· Convenient browsing: Search by artist, title, and other criteria; listen to 30-second previews before purchasing.

Apple limits use of songs purchased on iTunes by encoding songs in AAC format, licensed from Dolby. AAC encrypts the music and works with Fairplay, a digital rights management system, to block users from listening. Users with the correct Apple accounts can decode the music and listen to it. iTunes and iPod players integrate this encoding system in such a way that it is virtually transparent to the user, though it offers effective copy protection. However, users can still burn CD’s of purchased songs, which may be ripped in any (unencoded) format and shared. (iTunes and Digital Downloads)



Success

The iTunes Music Store was first released in May 2003. It was only available to Mac users and offered 200,000 songs from the five major record labels. The store sold 1 million songs in its first week and 5 million songs in its first 2 months. One year later, iTunes is available for Windows users, offers 700,000 songs, and has sold over 50 million songs. It currently sells 2.5 million songs a week. (iTunes and Digital Downloads)

“The iTunes Music Store has more titles than any competitor, by a considerable margin. It sells more songs than any other, also by a considerable margin.” (Ihnatko)

The iTunes web site received 2,333 unique visitors in March 2004, after MusicMatch and Napster. (Ranie et al.)

Apple and Pepsi teamed for a promotion that gave away 100 million songs on iTunes with codes underneath the caps of Pepsi bottles.



Problems

Though some full-length albums may be purchased in the iTunes Music Store for less than 99 cents per song, the price of an album is often close to the price of purchasing a compact disc from an online retailer.

Compact discs still offer advantages over digital music. Unlike downloaded tracks, their audio is uncompressed. While songs from the iTunes Music Store can only be listened to in iTunes or on an iPod, tracks can be ripped off a CD and imported to any digital music player.

Apple currently refuses to license the copyright protection technology, so music purchased through the iTunes Music Store can only be listened to on Apple-sanctioned devices. Competitors are developing rival technology; if they license it, competing music stores could offer songs that were playable on devices other than iTunes an the iPod. ( Ihnatko)

Apple has come under scrutiny for its claims that the iTunes Music Store offers consumers an alternative to peer-to-peer file sharing that is fair to artists. Of each 99-cent song purchased through the store, 65 percent goes to the record label. The label then pays the artist according to contract, but this is typically between 8 and 14 cents. (Downhill Battle)



Rhapsody

Rhapsody is a subscription-based pay service. For $9.95 a month, users can listen to any songs from the over 20,000 albums offered by the service. Songs are only saved on the company’s servers, so users can listen to their music from any computer. The service also includes a premium internet radio service with 50 “professionally programmed” stations. Users can create CD’s of music from the service for 79 cents a track.

Rhapsody now offers Rhapsody 411, a service that allows subscribers to listen to music and browse their library through their mobile phones. The service is available on AT&T and Sprint phones.

Rhapsody joined Digital 5, Inc. in May 2004 to offer networked DVD players that will allow users to use the Rhapsody service through their home theater systems. (Digital 5 )

History

Rhapsody was launched in December of 2001 by Listen.com. It boasted music from all five major record labels and a number of independent labels as well.

AudioGalaxy was a popular peer-to-peer file sharing system until May 2002 when the RIAA, having successfully stopped Napster’s support of illegal file sharing, brought a suit against the company. Audiogalaxy settled with the RIAA and agreed to restrict all songs in its search except those that had not been expressly allowed by copyright holders. (Borland, Audiogalaxy)

In an attempt to regain its users without legal problems, Audiogalaxy teamed up with Listen.com in September 2002 to tie AudioGalaxy’s network to Rhapsody. Since then Rhapsody has grown to have over 650,000 songs. RealNetworks invested in Listen.com in February of 2003 when Listen.com agreed to use RealNetworks’ audio streaming technology instead of Microsoft’s. (listen.com)

Success

PCWorld Magazine called Rhapsody the best streaming audio service in June 2003. Fortune magazine called it the “leader of the subscription pack.” In an April 2003 review [link: http://www.time.com/time/techtime/200304/sites_angel.html ] of Rhapsody and competitors MusicNet at AOL, MusicNow, and PressPlay, Time.com called Rhapsody “my favorite.”

Rhapsody fans enjoy the ability to listen to music from any computer (and now, from mobile phones and home stereos as well). Songs are never downloaded onto a computer; users listen to high-quality streamed audio. Users still have the ability to create CD’s for 79 cents a track if they desire that portability. The service’s radio stations are a good way for listeners to discover new music.

Rhapsody’s web site received 1,387 unique visitors in March 2004, after MusicMatch, Napster, and iTunes. ( Ranie et al.)

Problems

Unless they choose to burn CD’s of tracks, users never have copies of the songs they want. Streamed audio may be fine for users with broadband Internet access, but modem users must put up with low quality streams or skips. Users can only listen to their music for as long as they pay $9.95 a month—once they terminate the service, they have nothing to show for it.



Overnet and eDonkey

Overnet and eDonkey are two file sharing programs distributed by MetaMachine Inc. The programs use the same file transfer protocol, but eDonkey, the elder of the two products, uses a centralized server to organize its network. Overnet, the more advanced system, uses no centralized server.

Each Overnet user acts as a “node” in the Overnet network. If this node knows the IP address of another node it can contact this node and ask for the IP addresses of other nodes. It can then ask those nodes for more nodes, and so on. Nodes organize themselves—there is no centralized server to oversee communication between nodes. eDonkey2000 is compatible with both the eDonkey and Overnet networks, but MetaMachine is trying to phase out this less advanced system.

Users can search for files being shared by any user on the Overnet or eDonkey network. The software downloads parts of a single file from many different users. In addition to searching for shared files, users can visit websites that post links to shared files. In this system, a user will share a file with several other users and post a link. The link does not reference a file stored on a web server; rather, it tells the eDonkey or Overnet client the name of a file and what users have it. As more users download the file, it is more likely to be available for download from multiple users at any time. ( MetaMachine)

ed2k-it.com [link: http://www.ed2k-it.com ]is just one web site that allows users to post links to shared files. Every day about a dozen files are posted. Most are computer games, applications, and full-length films.

MetaMachine offers a “Pro” version of Overnet for $19.95 that lacks the banner ads of its free counterpart and comes with customer support.

Several clones of eDonkey and Overnet exist, including eMule [link: http://www.emule-project.net], a popular open-source version of eDonkey. eMule is free and does not include banner ads.

History

eDonkey was originally released in 2003. Since then eDonkey2000 and Overnet have been released as improvements on the original system.

Success

Though statistics are unavailable, MetaMachine claims that the eDonkey is one of the largest peer-to-peer networks in America and the largest network in Europe and Asia.

Problems

While eDonkey president Sam Yagan claimed in an interview the company does not place spyware in the free versions of eDonkey and Overnet, they do include adware. Users must put up with annoying banner ads or pay $19.95 for the free version.

The eDonkey makes a great deal of copyrighted material available to users. Music, software, and movies are available for free illegal download.