Music Ally

Songbeat used to be a desktop application that let people search for music on Seeqpod and then download it to their computer. It went offline following a lawsuit from WMG, but has just returned as Songbeat 360 with much the same idea, except with its own search technology.

Yes, it’s still facilitating piracy. “Why should I pay for music when it’s available for free everywhere anyway? This is the question everyone is asking themselves today,” says CEO Claudio Fritz-Vietta in the launch blurb.

The company has no deals with labels or publishers, but says it is “open for talks” and that “whatever we earn with this we are willing to share in a fair way”. Despite a takedown policy, we sense more lawsuits will shortly be thrown at the company.

While illegal P2P file-sharing is still seen as the biggest threat to the music industry, other forms of online piracy are coming up on the inside. Take a look at the new version of an application called Songbeat, for example.

It’s a desktop app that lets users search for music on Seeqpod, Project Playlist, Last.fm and other sites, and then download the files and import them into iTunes or Windows Media Player, or burn them as a CD. It’s free in its basic edition, which only allows 25 downloads, but users have to pay €19.99 for the premium version to download as much as they want.

Isn’t this illegal? Not according to Songbeat: “The downloading of music is not fundamentally illegal. However, it lies in the hands of the user to discern whether or not they have the right to download the particular music file at hand.” Something tells us this’ll end up in court.

(via TechCrunch)