“Add gBox Inc. to the growing list of online music services hoping to chip away at iTunes’s dominance,” The Associated Press reports.
“The Cupertino, Calif., startup was forced out of a stealth mode when Universal Music Group announced late Thursday it would test sales of some digital music without the customary copy-protection technology,” AP reports.
“Under the program, gBox will get referrals through ads Universal will buy through search leader Google Inc., gBox Chief Executive Tammy Artim said Friday,” AP reports.
“Google will get standard advertising fees rather than a cut of sales under the arrangement. The ads, which would appear when a Google user searches for specific terms such as the name of an artist, will direct the user to gBox,” AP reports.
“The arrangement with Universal and gBox is separate from Google’s music search service, which directs users to online music stores when they search for specific albums or artists. The company says it does not get paid for such referrals, and it does not restrict links to a single retailer,” AP reports.
“Google, which has said it has no plans to create a music store of its own, described the new arrangement as strictly an advertising relationship,” AP reports.
“Songs at gBox cost 99 cents each… GBox now works only with Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer browser on Windows-based computers, but Firefox support will come by the launch date, Artim said. It won’t be compatible with Apple’s Macintosh computers,” AP reports.
Full article here.
2 words: doomed
I have 2 words for you:
Brush your Teeth!
Dead in six months.
Brush your doomed, dead teeth in six months.
From their site:
“Hey, you need to be on a Windows machine and use Internet Explorer to play with gBox.
We are working hard to support FireFox users and the Mac, but it will take some time. Big apologies for the inconvenience.”
What a laugh. Big apology for your imminent demise.
Business is Business. But when companies sell DRM-free MP3’s (which run on Macs/iPods) and block customers using Macintoshes this is getting petty and personal. These companies have forgotten who they are – businesses.
Rule #1 The customer is always right
Rule #2 Make money
Rule #3 See first two rules
And the only reason not to support Firefox and Mac computers right away is that someone chose to use Microsoft products, or products which only support IE. And they expect to operate a business this way?
“I’m selling Chevys, but you must have a California driver’s license to buy one. We’re working on allowing our Chevys to be sold to other people from the other states, and we’ll let you know when we decide we want to do that.”
Sheesh.
Brush that brown chiclet-lined piehole, you Googleufugus.
I was gonna let them play with MY gBox, but I won’t touch ANY box that’s not Mac-friendly.
“It won’t be compatible with Apple’s Macintosh computers”
The common lethal mistake all “doomed” music services make. The ITMS was successful before windows users were invited to the party.
That’s okay, I never get tired wiping blood off my click wheel.
Everyone should go to Google click to gBox and not buy anything… it will cost gBox ad money and they won’t have any sales.
The quality of downloadable music sucks no matter who is doing it. A large majority of my CD collection is ripped in Apple Lossless to a music dedicated G5 iMac. The quality comes nowhere near to comparing to what the actual CD delivers. Let’s hope that downloadable music doesn’t become the standard until they figure out how to match the quality of a CD! Until that point, who cares what Universal or anyone else does with DRM.
clinicaltechmaster: That’s the best idea I’ve heard today. An Automator Action will make it even better.
F gBox
So, Jump… you must have a $20,000 audio setup with highly tuned ears, eh? Because that’s the only way you’ll notice a difference between the actual CD and a 320 kbps AAC format.
Otherwise, it’s all in your head. And experts agree with me.
@AshNazg
Nah… even a couple of thousand dollars, or even less, and you can CLEARLY hear the difference. Even in my car — and that’s only got a Bose sound system — you can clearly hear difference between 256K AAC and CD audio.
It’s not like CD is super loss-less itself and the ultimate benchmark in quality, but it has done the job more than 25 years old … why accept lower quality?
“clinicaltechmaster
Everyone should go to Google click to gBox and not buy anything… it will cost gBox ad money and they won’t have any sales.”
Will that also show as a visit from Safari and a Mac?
Cuz I’d really like to rub salt into that wound!
Jump. In a test you couldn’t tell the difference, that is, unless you’re better than all the experts. Maybe you are one in a million.
HaHa. Turn off Jaavscript in your preferences in FireFox (Mac) and load the page. They have a nice little icon/tab with iPod/iTunes on there. Apparently they just hate the Macintosh platform.
How funny.
It’s mostly all going to end up on an iPod via iTunes, regardless. heh.
From there site:
“iPod®/iTunes®
gBox supports Apple’s AAC/Fairplay format for iPod/iTunes. Download music for your iPod in Apple’s AAC/FairPlay format and load it into your iTunes library like any other imported music file. Just synch with your iPod and you’re done. It’s that easy.”
I don’t get it, it seems like the only reason they are not compatible with any other browser and platform is because their web developers don’t know how to code cross platform sites. Which explains why their site has a bunch of non compliant coding errors. sheesh.
So let me get this straight. Instead of just going directly to iTunes and buy tracks, I should go to their site by buy tracks and then import into iTunes just to not have DRM. I don’t Think so.
It always baffles me how eMusic is never brought up in discussions like this. It has offered DRM-free music for years, and it’s much cheaper than iTunes ($10=30 songs). I have had a membership for 2 years and I love it.
Oh, I see Apple can get SLAMMED by Norway and European’s for it’s DRM music… cos it only played on iPods (available for PC and MAC)… but I’m gBox won’t be compatible with Apple’s Macintosh computers.
I am gonna sue !!!!!
Why in the hell would they intentionally not make it compatible with Mac? That makes no sense… If there’s no DRM, what’s the point?