“Poplife” is born
Written by tevensso on June 16, 2004 to Music Business.
STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - 
The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet decides to start a new record store on the Internet. They are looking in the direction of Apple’s iTunes. Aftonbladet’s site will be named Poplife.
Initially the site will contain 100,000 songs by Elvis, The Stones, Bob Dylan, Gyllene Tider, David Bowie and Magnus Uggla, to name a few. By the end of December Aftonbladet counts on having more than half a million songs for sale. Poplife will be open for Windows users to start with, Mac users will follow.
The songs will cost 15 kronor (€1.65) to download and the songs will be in Windows Media Format which will allow the user to burn them on three CDs. The site opens this Friday.
Apple launched the European version of their iTunes Music Store earlier this week. The store is available for customers in Germany, France and the UK. The songs cost €0.99 (£0.79 in the UK). An EU-wide iTunes Music Store is expected to be opened in October.
- Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)
- Poplife
- iTunes Music Store
Other articles with the same topic
- Billboard mentions Roxette (February 26, 2011)
- Citigroup takes control of EMI (February 1, 2011)
- Kobalt signs Roxette in North America (January 13, 2011)
- Record "The Look" and win $5,000 shopping spree (August 11, 2010)
- EMI Music triples full-year earnings (May 8, 2009)
29 comments
Sascha said on June 16, 2004 11:17:
I think the iTunes Music Store is much more interesting for us international rox fans. The european store opened yesterday in France, Germany and the UK. The rest of Europe will follow later. It offers songs for 0,99 € and albums for 9,99 €. It’s protected AAC-files which you can play on 5 computers, burn unlimited CD-copies and transfer to unlimited iPods.
At the moment the german store only has “Have A Nice Day” and “Het Vind” by Marie, but the catalogue is expected to grow fast. The US store offers “Look Sharp!”, “Joyride” and “Tourism” as partial albums.
For more info: http://www.itunes.com · http://www.itunes.com/de · http://www.itunes.com/fr · http://www.itunes.com/uk
roxeteer (moderator) said on June 16, 2004 12:10:
@Anonymous: I don’t see any reason why there wouldn’t be Gyllene Tider songs for sale in iTunes. There’s already Marie’s “Het vind” available.
roxeteer (moderator) said on June 16, 2004 13:25:
In iTunes full albums are usually €9.99. Cheaper than in the stores, unless you compare it to mid-price cds.
Jud (moderator) said on June 16, 2004 14:35:
holy s*** 1.65€ per song... I can get full real albums for 12€-13€ at Cd-wow :S
Sascha said on June 16, 2004 15:09:
...and 0,99 € for a single song (at iTunes) is much cheaper than a CD-single (usually 6,00 € in Germany)!
Strest said on June 16, 2004 15:11:
They’ve got to be crazy.
15 SEK / song.
That’s way way too expensive.
But then again I’m not really the in the targetgroup cause I would only pay for unreleased stuff (for online-music that is).
Note that I don’t count buying CD’s from Ginza and CDOn for online-music.
tevensso (moderator) said on June 16, 2004 15:12:
Agree with anonymous; what if “Finn 5 fel!” was downloadable? It would cost 14*15=210, plus 4 for an empty CD, MINUS a nice sleeve. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. If it were me I’d consider downloading an album if it was less than maybe half the price. So 14*7=98...? And “F5f!” is available at CD-Wow for 117 (with a voucher) INCLUDING the sleeve. Easy choice?
Pascal said on June 16, 2004 18:29:
$0.05 - $0.055 for a song. It’s a legal service and I’m very happy with it. The catalogue is not that big, but it’s fine though.
TheRain1981 said on June 17, 2004 03:30:
I agree. I even think the 99 cents from iTunes (in the USA) is expensive, simply because we are paying for compressed, protected files. The files aren’t as good of quality as those ripped from a CD. It’s simply poorer quality, and I don’t see why I should have to pay as much for poorer quality for an album without sleeves and a jewel case as for a CD I might buy in the store. iTunes is good for some rare stuff, but I stopped using it for buying regular files because I was disappointed in the sound quality.
Sascha said on June 17, 2004 07:56:
Pascal: Even if allofmp3.com is legal in Russia, it’s obvious that the artists don’t see a single Cent from that service! With that one you’re more likely supporting the russian mafia. They don’t have any contracts with the international labels, they don’t have any distribution deals for foreign contries (if they have any for Russia).
Meanwhile, I wouldn’t use download-services for buying full albums either, because I like to get a nice CD, a booklet - to collect real records. But for single songs it’s great... and cheap!
Pascal said on June 17, 2004 11:24:
Sascha:
1) ***** from the allofmp3 website :
“Is it legally to download music from site AllOFMP3.com?
All the materials in the MediaServices projects are available for distribution through Internet according to license # LS-3Ì-03-79 of the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society. Under the license terms, MediaServices pays license fees for all the materials subject to the Law of the Russian Federation “On Copyright and Related Rights”. All the materials are available solely for personal use and must not be used for further distribution, resale or broadcasting.
Users are responsible for the usage and distribution of the materials of Allofmp3.com. This responsibility depends on the local legislation of the country of residence. Allofmp3.com’s Administration doesn’t chases the legislations of different countries and is not responsible to the non-Russian users.”
2) ***** Read the following page :
http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm
Sascha said on June 17, 2004 11:39:
I know that they claim themselves as legal. But it’s still in the grey-zone. Why do you think other services charge 10 times more than this one? Because they have to pay the artists and labels. This one only pays some sort of broadcasting fee. I know what it means to live from creative work, so I can’t support betraying the artists and labels. Or do you think Per would be happy to see his music at allofmp3.com?
Pascal said on June 17, 2004 12:00:
Sascha: IT IS LEGAL. The service exists since 4 years, IFPI knows the service and they don’t take any legal actions. Why not? Because it is a legal service. Read the pages and interviews on museekster.com carefully.
Sascha said on June 17, 2004 14:56:
Pascal, it’s in the grey-zone. A simple hole in the law, that doesn’t make it better in my eyes. How much exactly do you expect the artists/label to get from the 0,05 € per song? It’s just not fair for all the people who are involved in production/promotion/distribution of a record. 0,05 € could by right for the russian custumers who are quite poor, but you probably expect to get some Euros more for your work. So it shouldn’t be a problem to pay more as well! Recorded music isn’t a free giveaway, it’s a creative product which takes a lot of money and work to make.
Jud (moderator) said on June 18, 2004 09:12:
cdon also offers this service now, price per track: 14,90sek (as far as I could see in the site)... :S
Santi said on June 18, 2004 18:09:
Only 3 times to be burnt on a CD??? How clever... Anything that can be played can be recorded... I can burn it in a CD and make an MP3 out of it without the PC noticing it... 8-)
Strest said on June 20, 2004 16:51:
Yep, but you have to remember that the quality won’t be CD -> MP3 but WMA -> CD -> MP3
tevensso (moderator) said on June 21, 2004 07:57:
CDON and Poplife is the SAME site, only different colors... :S
tevensso (moderator) said on June 28, 2004 10:47:
Someone must have tricked them into believing this is a good thing-
tevensso (moderator) said on June 16, 2004 10:52:
The price is too high, I don’t think anyone is interested to download music for 15 kronor per song...