Sky UK stops Sky Songs

Sky Broadband (BSkyB UK) has decided to terminate Sky Songs, its legal music download service that had been originally designed for helping dissuade the customers of Sky ISP from becoming involved in unlawful downloading activity. This move is considered to be a major setback for the right holders that have never been able to help the operators come up with more attractive solutions.

The legal download service of Sky ISP that was launched 2009 October in a joint venture with Universal Music, has apparently failed in attracting enough customers. This has been hardly surprising as a dismal job was also done by Sky regarding the promotion of the service to existing customers.

Besides, Sky had also not offered anything fresh over their rivals such as Spotify and iTunes that were obviously more established. It is understood that the service has already begun the closing of its existing accounts. However, its website still seems to be signing up fresh customers.

The complete removal of Sky Songs from the internet will take place on February 7 2011.

On the other hand, the closest rival of Sky UK, Virgin Media UK is still striving to launch an unlimited DRM free music streaming and download subscription service of its own. Nevertheless, it was found to be recently forced to stall its ambitions, due to increased hassles from the part of Rights Holders.