FULLAUDIO'S WINDOW ON
MUSIC SERVICE

This week, FullAudio chief Chris Gladwin is showing off his company's digital music subscription platform at Phoenix's DEMO conference—and saying nice things about Bill Gates. He's also being hassled by drunk sales guys from Montana to join them at a titty bar.

FullAudio, which has licensed music from all the major label groups and is handling online music services for, among others, some 30 Clear Channel stations—has announced a pact with Microsoft to use Windows Media for both audio and Digital Rights Management. The station-site services are slated for a March rollout.

FullAudio says it eventually plans to make more than 1 million tracks available via the platform, which is designed for co-branding with distribution partners.

With the majors, a radio behemoth and digital security in the mix, how does FullAudio expect to pique consumer interest in online music?

Part of the answer, the company claims, lies in the its patent-pending Cache-Download solution, whereby superior sound quality is not dependent on users' connection speeds. Gladwin and cohorts also promise compatibility with portable devices, albeit in tandem with whatever security and time-out limitations are imposed by rights-holders.

"Working with Microsoft and building our service on its digital media technology enables us to deliver a convenient, secure music subscription platform that strongly supports our distribution platform," reads a quote generated for Gladwin by people who really know what today's 14-year-old is looking for.

The FullAudio-WMA announcement coincides with a report by OC&C Strategy Consultants that deems paid online services "a damning failure." Granted, it seems awfully early to even measure the impact of these new services in any meaningful way—and no, we've never heard of OC&C Strategy Consultants before, either. Other examiners of the prospects for digital music services paint a far rosier picture, especially given a recent FCC report that shows a huge spike in broadband adoption in the U.S. during the first half of 2001.

But in a related story, you can download a copy of the hitsdailydouble.com report, "Digital Music: A Bunch of Half-Baked Guesses We Made When We Were Totally Baked," for three easy payments of $399.99.