I liked Songbeat the minute I started using it. First released as a desktop app for Seeqpod back in January 2008, the upgraded version that was introduced nearly 12 months after that not only made searching for music extremely simple but also offered an excellent way to download tracks to your computer.
And like Seeqpod, it was also an easy way to obtain copyrighted material from the many places on the Web where that kind of stuff can be found.
Up, down, and up again
Evidently, the music industry took notice and sought to shut the service down in court. Warner Music was the first to file a lawsuit against the startup behind Songbeat and ultimately forced the fledgling company to take the service offline, but not without them promising to return with something bigger and bolder in the future.
Yesterday, the guys behind Songbeat came out with a revived version of the desktop client, which has been renamed Songbeat 360. Music lovers are going to love it.
The music industry, however, is not.
The app
Songbeat 360 is an Adobe AIR powered desktop music player with a powerful music search engine – unambiguously baptized Songbeat Search – at its core. Search for artists or songs and the app returns a list of 50 search results, along with links to the originating source. Double-click tracks and you can instantly play them from the integrated player, or right-click to download tunes to your computer. Drag music tracks to the left-hand column and create custom playlists straight from the app. Slick, fast and easy.
Wanna learn more about an artist? Simply hit the ‘Discover’ button and you’ll get all sorts of information from across the web delivered right to the desktop client interface, including similar artists so you can find more music you like by browsing their profiles and albums. Interested in knowing when the artist in question (or another) is playing at or nearby your location? Click the ‘Live’ button and you’ll get a list of gigs based on your location, which you can easily modify. Wanna let your friends know what you’re listening to? The integrated Twitter button will make that easy for you too.
The cost
Songbeat has set up an unusual way of monetizing the service. When you launch the application for the first time, you’ll see 50 credits at the right top of the client. Every time you do a search for an artist or song, a credit comes off your inventory. Scroll to the bottom of the list and you’ll get 50 more results, once again taking a credit off your account. If you run out of credits, which takes away the ability to search music using Songbeat Search, you can purchase additional credits at any time through Paypal, with a rate of €10 or roughly $15 for 1,000 credits.
Here’s the funny thing: actually streaming music or downloading music doesn’t cost you any credits at all. Nothing. Zip.
And that’s of course what will make users love it, and labels (and many music artists) hate it.
The problem
The announcement of the all new Songbeat starts like this:
“Why should I pay for music when it’s available for free everywhere anyway? This is the question everyone is asking themselves today.” says Claudio Fritz-Vietta, CEO of Songbeat Distribution Ltd.
Nothing short of provocative, and when I inquired about the specifics of deals that are in place with record labels or artists to make sure the latter get adequate compensation for their work, Fritz-Vietta made it clear that he is trying every trick in the book to prevent having to pay up for that. Which means that, unlike Spotify (which Songbeat loves to compare themselves with), there are zero arrangements with the music industry in place yet, and I doubt there ever will be.
Like Seeqpod before them, Songbeat hides behind the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by stating they are only search providers offering users access to music that is already available on the Web, and that the company never actually hosts any digital files on its own servers. Seeqpod tried to play that game, got sued all over the place anyway, ultimately filed for bankruptcy only to be (presumably) picked up by Microsoft for its core technology and team some time after.
Songbeat also says it actually wants to help artists and their labels market their music, concerts etc. better by – get this – offering them free ad space inside the client interface. The idea is that they’d advertise better quality tracks, concert tickets, etc. using ad units that are displayed whenever someone ends up on the artist’s profile.
Somehow, I don’t think that’ll stick.
This is part of their pitch:
“There are no deals with any labels in place yet, but we are open for talks and are willing to work with them and with each individual artist. We are not doing this to steal from anyone. Whatever we earn with this we are willing to share in a fair way. We want to offer a new and alternative revenue stream. Artists and labels will have to use as many revenue streams as possible to keep their businesses going – we will be one of them.
It’s about controlling what’s out there at the moment – and right now – as we can see the labels & artists have no way to control it. We want to help them control any content that’s out there may it be claimed legal or illegal.
Regarding the legal situation Songbeat 360 and Songbeat Search fully comply with the DMCA and all major copyright laws internationally. Songbeat has learned a lot in the past after being sued by Warner Music in Germany. There is a take-down notice and each source from each individual track found is shown. It would actually be a perfect tool for labels to find all copyright infringements that are online and get them taken down.”
In a perfect world, maybe. A serious shame we’re not living in one.
Love the idea! I shouldn’t have to pay for music, but willing to pay to find a song. Concept of random searches for free would be interesting to explore.
Shouldn’t have to pay for music? I’m certainly not on board with the RIAA lawsuit-fest, but what kind of over-entitled joke of a stance is that?
What do you do for a living? I’d like 100000 of whatever you offer. For Free. Please.
Thanks!
I’d rather pay for spotify, but I have to admit that their way of monetizing their service is quite interesting.
I was thrilled by the program until I understood how the “credits” worked. I have a hard time paying for something where I “may” find a song I enjoy. It seems kind of backwards to me. I mean, we don’t get charged for window shopping.
It’s a good job you can trial it. Having done so I can safely say that it’s useless on a number of levels, just three main to note:
1) None of the searches for latest tunes I could find via the first page of google come up on the first 50 results of using 360 – gosh I wonder why that is!?
2) If you navigate away from the search to look at your previous searches, clicking back takes you back to the first 50 results only – regardless if you have already scrolled down costing more credits. So most of your credits are going to get used up through a shoddy UI.
3) Buffering is shocking even at 128 bit rate.
I’m struggling to understand why this style of company feels it can monetize something for someone else’s work. At least Spotify et al are contributing!
Uninstalled.
Another tech business being built off the back of content creators claiming it should be free, imagine that.
Why are they charging for search since it’s free elsewhere?
Under their definition everything is free: just go into a store and steal it. I can get large-screen TV’s for free, groceries for free, computers for free — give me a good set of power tools and a high-end wine store; I’ll have the ultimate wine collection … everything I want all for free! Using the same logic I can also get people to do anything I want for free: just point a gun at them and make them do whatever I ask. Wow — free services!
Maybe I’ll make a search engine of people willing to help provide me these “free” goods and services and charge people to use it. Only problem is that sounds vaguely like a technological version of the mafia.
People who make songs, movies, and software deserve to reserve the right to charge whatever they want. If people don’t want to pay for it then they should just not have it, the same as any other product or service. The idea that digitized media should be free because it’s easy to steal is ludicrous. I hope the music industry (and no, I have nothing to do w/ the music or movie industry; I don’t even know anybody in it) obliterates them. I think some of the fines against file sharers are excessive but this company is monetizing theft; there’s nothing innovative about it.
+1
I just installed it, Robin, and my credit are 0000, not 0050 as you advertised! Not nice!
My favorit is Jamendo.
Are these guys serious?!? Charging people for something they themselves didn’t create?
Can they really be anymore a** backwards than this?
These guys are even more inconsiderate than the so called music pirates (a.k.a fans,) At least we believe the Artist(s) should get paid.
The best way to discover music is from a friend or community (ie. blogs, forums, friend’s emails…you get the point.) Music discovery has clearly been redefined by these software companies. The word “discovery” no longer means ‘to find’, but instead we are letting the software to do the finding for us; which makes no sense at all.
Are these guys serious?!? Charging people for something they didn’t help create or distribute? Can one really be anymore a** backwards than this?
These guys are even more inconsiderate than those so called music pirates (a.k.a fans.) At least we believe the Artist(s) should get paid for their work.
The best way to discover music is from a friend or community (e.g: blogs, forums, friend’s emails…you get the point.) Music discovery has been redefined by these software companies. The word “discovery” no longer means ‘to find’, but instead we are letting software(s) to do the finding for us.
SOOO many things wrong with this.
1) I have to pay to use their search service? So it costs me to find that they can’t find the music i’m looking for, when I can find it on Playlist, Songza, MixTurtle or tons of other sites free?
2) I would need to download the app in order to do what tons of websites already accomplish (save that stuff for the Apple app store please)
3) The money they expect to get goes all to them and no mention of anything going to the artists?
At least there thinking outside the box and giving ‘paid search’ a new meaning.
It is an interesting way of monetization.
Haven’t tried the app yet myself, but guess they should have a really good search feature if they are going to charge for it. Especially given the fact that there are other services who are providing this or something similiar to this for free
Sounds cool, but I am already quite proficient it getting music for free myself, and I can’t imagine using this much more ethical than getting it for free.
It should to face the strong contest.
What a weird idea! The internet brought us tools and services that give consumers greater transparency over the products and services before we spend our money. Songbeat turns it around. You essentially pay for something you don’t know the quality of. And frankly (I did some test searches) the quality of the search is not really good.
So, where is the “advanced search” for 10 credits, or the “super-duper fine tuned search” for 100 credits? And where is the “sort by artist’s name” button for another 50 credits…
Oh, and where is the “money back” button in case you misspelled your search query?
This could get ridiculous real quick. Or is it already?
I must say at first, I was tempted to say: Hmmm, this looks like a pretty interesting comeback.
But then it struck me:Hello, why should I pay for something that is already available for free?All u have to do is search for it.
And I can’t help wondering what does the music Industry feel about this, since they are not paying any royalties.They had a hard time because of this the first time so I’m pretty sure it will not last that long this time either. C’mon, how legal can it be?
I’m wondering who will buy this tool? I’d rather buy every song than getting an illegal tool, which btw was sued by warner music…