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Virgin and Universal Announce Unlimited Music Download Service

Paul Lilly — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:00:06 -0500

Through a partnership with Universal, Virgin Media said it plans to launch an unlimited music download subscription service. The well timed announcement comes just one day before a British report hits the public eye detailing how the creative and telecom industries should go about bumping up digital sales to cope with lost revenue due to online piracy.

"We listened to our customers, our fans, and our artists and we think that this is an opportunity to bring music to a wider audience," said Lucian Grainge, Universal Music chairman and CEO.

According to Reuters, people familiar with the service said it would cost around $16 to $24 per month. Both sides are describing the service as a world first, which would allow Virgin Media broadband customers to both listen to streaming tracks and download however many tracks and albums they want.

Unlike other unlimited subscription services, the downloadable MP3s won't come with any DRM shackles, which means the tracks can be transferred to and played from any MP3-capable device.

"This is really high stakes, if this can't work then what will," commented Mark Mulligan, an analyst with Jupiter.

Image Credit: dailymobile.se

Virgin America First Airline to Offer Wi-Fi in All Flights

Andy Salisbury — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:29:06 -0500

While AirTran claimed that they would be the first to implement Wi-Fi on all of their flights, Virgin America just beat them to the punch.

Yesterday Virgin officially announced that they would feature Wi-Fi on all 100 of their daily flights. Costs clock in at $12.95 for three hours and over, $9.95 for less than three hours, $5.95 for red-eye flights, and $7.95 if you just want to use a handheld device (such as a cell phone or a DSi).

Sure, the prices might seem a little beefy, but when I’m given the mental option between watching the inevitably bad movie that’s playing on the screen in front of me, or surfing the net on my own accord, I’ll opt towards the latter every time.

Image Credit: Virgin America

Virgin ISP Softens Stance After Threatening to Disconnect File Sharers

Paul Lilly — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:00:21 -0500

If you thought internet metering was taking things too far, try being a Virgin ISP customer. In a joint venture with the British recording industry group BPI, roughly 800 letters have been sent out to file sharers subscribed to Virgin, with thousands more on the way. These aren't 'Thank you for being a customer' notices, and instead the envelopes read "Important: If you don't read this, your broadband could be disconnected."

Despite the ominous warning and pressure from the BPI to implement a three strikes policy - where users of file sharing networks would be given two warnings and then disconnected on a third offense - Virgin claims the wording was a "mistake," saying:

"It is important to let our customers know that their accounts have been used in a certain way but we are happy to accept it may not be the account holder that's involved. It could be someone else in the family or someone living in a shared house. it could even be someone stealing Wi-Fi. We are not making any form of accusation." - Asam Ahmad from Virgin

Virgin went on to claim that there was "absolutely no possibility" it would take legal action against its customers under the current campaign, and that it wouldn't hand over user information "under any circumstances." Normally such strong statements would be comforting, but if that's the case, why send out the letters in the first place?

Perhaps Virgin underestimated public response or maybe BPI presented a compelling case in favor of sending the letters, but no matter what the reason, recipients of the letters are understandably peeved. Some customers are reporting feeling "betrayed," and others claim they never shared any files, yet still received a notice.

Angry users aside, the music industry continues to lobby the UK government to force broadband companies into taking increasing measures to stop file sharing, and Ministers have set a deadline for next spring for both sides to come to a voluntary agreement. If not, the government might push through laws of its own.

What do you think? Can file sharing really be controlled and regulated in today's Wi-Fi landscape?

Image Credit: Virgin