The first major digital music store to go DRM-free (though arguably, eMusic could lay some claim to this) 7 Digital is well-known in Europe, where it commenced activity in the UK. In the US, tracks sold by 7Digital will cost 77-cents, or $7.77 for an album (standard prices, variable prices also exist). Tracks are sold in high-quality 320kbps MP3 format, completely free of DRM. “The company also offers a “digital locker” in which all your downloads are backed-up on 7 Digital’s servers in the event you need to redownload them in case of computer failure,” reports Distorted Loop.
The company is offering a free application through the BlackBerry App World store, which gives BlackBerry users access to the company’s full catalogue of 6 million songs. As 7Digital also drives Spotify’s music download service, it’s not unlikely we’ll see Spotify launch properly in the US soon, and potentially offering a music streaming service for mobile phones. Meanwhile, over at Palm, new hires Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer, both ex-of Mozilla, delivered a speech to developers in which they stressed that open development would be the way to go, laying a couple of initiatives down that clearly aim to combat Apple’s App Store and iPhone. Principal in these initiatives: – Developers can now fully distribute their apps on the Web. They submit apps to Palm and Palm then gives them a URL they can share, there’s no need for a store. – Apps will not be reviewed by Palm. – Palm will offer the App Catalog for developers who want to charge for their Apps, membership costs $50. – Palm is making its WebOS App Development software available for free, waiving the prior $99 fee. – Perhaps most crucially as the company continues its anti-Apple crusade, the company is to open up its analytical data to any developer who might want it.
