Virgin launches Vmusic in India - free music has never been worth so little

QuickPlay and Virgin Mobile today announced a new music service for the Indian market. Vmusic will be the first unlimited service for full-track music downloads from Virgin Mobile in India. Quickplay will be providing the infrastructure for the service, which will be free to subscribers… for the first 12 months, anyway.

vJazz phones from Virgin Mobile have a Vmusic app - this is what’s required to play the “free” music. And only vJazz phones have it. Sony BMG and Hungama are amongst the labels providing the tracks. For the first 12 months of this service, subscribers get unlimited downloads completely free. The music is subject to digital rights management (DRM) from QuickPlay.

From the release:

“As India’s leading youth-focused mobile service, Virgin Mobile India has consistently set itself apart by providing an attractive range of phones to the world’s fastest growing mobile market,” said Wayne Purboo, president and CEO, QuickPlay Media. “Now, through this collaboration with QuickPlay, VMI will transform their customers’ mobile experience by providing them with access to music from some of the world’s most popular artists. By working with QuickPlay, VMI also ensures seamless expansion of its multimedia services to meet evolving customer preferences.”

Deval Parikh, Chief Officer, Handset, VAS & Procurement, Virgin Mobile India comments, “Vmusic is a first in the Indian Telecom industry where it was a challenge to create an integrated and compelling music offering along with pricing innovation. Putting together the Unlimited Full-Music download service at no extra charge to the subscriber for a whole year was a tall order that Virgin Mobile India has achieved. Not only that, we have built-in simplicity & ease of access to the service by adding a one-touch access mechanism on the vJazz phone as well as designed a customized user interface targeted at the Indian youth. We selected QuickPlay because of the company’s proven ability to provide high-quality and customer-friendly mobile media solutions. Always ahead of the curve, our growing customer base wants anytime, anywhere access to the latest music. QuickPlay has delivered an innovative and flexible solution that enables us to satisfy the current demands of our customers.”

What we think?

This really isn’t a great service at all. Ok so it’s free music… but it’s also a weak service. The music being offered is tightly controlled by the labels, and since it’s being given away for free, subscribers shouldn’t be looking forward to really good songs. They can expect second rate remixes and “hits”. That’s the problem with an official, “free” music service - everything is so tightly regulated and bound up with DRM that the content is rubbish and difficult to enjoy. I’ll stick with services like iTunes, thanks. I don’t mind paying a reasonable fee for a huge selection of DRM free music.