MP3tunes Debuts Online Music Storage
MP3.com founder Michael Robertson is reviving an old service with a new twist as part of his new venture called MP3tunes. The company on Wednesday launched Oboe, an online music storage locker that offers syncing and streaming capabilities. But is Robertson setting himself up for another attack by the RIAA?
The new service is designed to rid users of having to carry around their music around wherever they go. "It makes more sense to safely store your music online and sync it or stream it to all the places you listen to music, which is exactly what Oboe makes possible," Robertson says.
Oboe first surfaced in October, when Robertson announced he had hired Jon Lech Johansen, the 21 year-old programmer who became known as DVD Jon following his release of DeCSS to bypass the copyright protection on DVD movies. He said Johansen would help build the new service and "bring music into the 21st century."
For a $39.95 USD yearly fee, Oboe users receive unlimited storage and Oboe Sync software to automatically upload music to the service. Customers can then log into the Oboe Locker Web site, which features an AJAX enabled application-like interface, to stream music at 192kbps.
A free version of Oboe allows streaming at 56kbps, but users must upload music from the Web rather than with Oboe Sync.
The site enables users to create playlists, label music, adjust volume and skip tracks all from within a Web browser. Plug-ins for Firefox and iTunes can be used to access Oboe directly from the applications. Music stored in Oboe appears in the iTunes library, and can be synced both directions.
With the Firefox plug-in, music links from the Web can be directly "sideloaded" into the Oboe library for saving and streaming.
However, it's not yet clear how the recording industry will respond to Oboe. Back when he was the CEO of MP3.com, Robertson launched an online music service that enabled users to stream music from the Web after confirming they owned the CD. The RIAA sued MP3.com shortly thereafter, alleging it was "in reckless disregard of the law" and had no license for the music it was storing.
This time around, Robertson has made a few changes thanks to the ubiquity of broadband. Because users do all the uploading, he says MP3tunes is not responsible for making sure the content is legal.
In addition, customers can only listen to their own songs, meaning Oboe is simply serving as a storage provider just like Google's Gmail service or AOL's Xdrive.
Still, once music is uploaded there is nothing to prevent users from sharing passwords or allowing others to sync their collection. And the RIAA isn't known for being lenient when it comes to possible enablers of copyright infringement.