MP3tunes Offers Online Music 'Locker'

MP3tunes, a company created by MP3.com founder Michael Robertson, has launched an unlimited online digital music storage service, called Oboe.

The service costs $39.95 yearly and lets customers back up and consolidate their music files and also stream their music to various computers.

Users can install Oboe Syncsoftware on multiple systems running Macintosh OS X, Microsoft Windows, or the Linux operating system. The software scans the computers and uploads all music files to the online storage locker. The online storage locker combines music from the multiple computers and then syncs the contents of the locker to all the user's computers. The locker can store MP3, Windows Media, and iTunes files.

For now the new service, announced last week, works only on computers but by the end of the year MP3tunes plans to publish Oboe application programming interfaces (APIs) so that other devices, like mobile phones, game consoles, or personal digital assistants, can be used to sync with or stream music from the online storage locker.

A plug-in lets iTunes customers access Oboe from their iTunes software to make it easier for them to add their iTunes music to the locker.

Legal Realities Interfere

File format and digital rights management (DRM) incompatibilities put some limits on the offering and Robertson's vision.

"I want a world where you can play your music on products from any vendor and even across vendors," Robertson wrote in his blog. However, that world doesn't exist today.

Music that users purchase from the iTunes store, for example, is protected by the iTunes DRM and can only be played on a device with iTunes software. When Oboe users view their list of music from their online storage locker, songs that have the iTunes DRM will be listed in italics and can't be played from Oboe's Web-based interface on a computer that does not have iTunes. "We don't adjust the DRM," Robertson said. "If it has restrictions going in it will going out."

So far, he said customers are excited about the simple, low-cost pricing plan.

"One big wave of first users are simply users who want to backup their iTunes music," he said, noting that without such backup, if a user's machine crashes the music purchased from the iTunes store is gone forever. "It's worth 40 bucks as a bit of insurance," he said.