Let the music PLAY

Danish telco, TDC, is your friend, if you are into music. At least that is how the old once-upon-a-time state monopoly wants to position itself. Starting at midnight April 1 the telco will be offering more than 1 million tracks from the likes of Sony BMG, EMI and Warner for download to broadband and mobile subscribers through their new music service PLAY - absolutely free of charge. And it’s supposedly not an Aprils Fools joke.

TDC CEO Jens Alder calls it “the companys most important strategic bet for years”. Even though I like the idea I will let that remark sit for itself for a few seconds in the memory of all the other things TDC could - and in my mind should - have done ages ago instead.

But let that rest for the bigger matter at hand now. I’m positive that PLAY comes at a huge cost to TDC. Forget all the nice phrases from record companies and rights holders - they have been bought to take part in this. And that’s fair.

Because by doing this, both they and TDC have (perhaps unintentionally) realized a matter of fact in the digital age: Recorded music is a commodity approaching zero transaction value. Hence music becomes about adding something on top for something else to be sold. For TDC that’s their access business on broadband and mobile. For record companies its…God knows what.

UPDATE: PLAY will only be available through the use of Windows Media DRM, which effectively means that only Windows, ie. PC, users will be able to take advantage of this. Damn.