This article is more than 1 year old
Yamaha brings digital music service on-line
But it's MIDI-based, not MP3
Yamaha has jumped on the digital music bandwagon, days before Sony launches its Net-based digital music distribution service of its own. Curiously, MidRadio's offerings are provided in none of the usual compression formats - MP3, ATRAC3, RealPlayer G2, Liquid Tracks, etc. - but in MIDI form, the electronic musical instrument encoding system pioneered by Yamaha.
A further indication that MidRadio is perhaps more of a muso's site, is the availability of printed sheet music. Would-be buyers can listen to a 90-second clip from each available song, and pay for and download the full version if they like it.
According to the Nikkei newswire, MidRadio has around 7000 tracks covering 12 musical genres to choose from. Over 4000 songs are also available as sheet music. ®
Related stories
Softbank to launch digital music operation
BMG to launch MP3 sales site in January
Sony to sell digital music online before Christmas
Biting the hand that feeds IT
