UK trial for DAB music downloads
We seem to be going DAB crazy. First it was the radio, then there was talk of trialling TV to mobile via DAB, now the UBC Media Group, one of the UK’s largest independent radio production companies, is testing a download service that allows music downloads via the DAB network.
UBC’s system, which is being offered next month on a trial basis by the Heart radio station, allows digital radio listeners to buy the track they’re currently listening to and have it transferred to a DAB-compatible music player. UBC’s service broadcasts encoded and encrypted music files alongside a radio station’s audio stream. These are cached for a short time in the mobile device and can be bought and kept immediately. The company said the purchase would also allow the transfer of the song to a user’s web-accessed music library, allowing them to download the song to a PC and to copy it to a DRM-supporting portable player.
UBC are pricing songs around £1.25, bought through a pre-pay credit system. The company reckons mobile phones with built-in DAB receivers will appear later this year. The trial, support by the "big four" recording companies (Sony BMG, EMI, Warner and Universal), will run Birmingham next month, initially limited to 100 people.
Via The Register
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