[fsfc-discuss] How Quebecor increased their stronghold on Quebec francophone songs ( & artists )

[Fabian Rodriguez]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hi

This week I noticed one of our local tech blogs invite its québécois reader ship to join zik.ca and try its  "improved" service.
- From Wikipedia:

"*Archambault*, a Quebecor Media <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebecor_Media> company, is the largest music retailer in the province of Quebec <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec>, Canada <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada>, as well as a major retailer of books, DVDs, periodicals, musical instruments, sheet music, games, toys and gift ideas. Its e-commerce site, www.archambault.ca, is the largest French-language retail site in North America. The company's Zik.ca site is the world's first French-language music download service. Archambault currently operates 15 stores in Quebec."

To my surprise, all the music that used to be available for purchase as MP3 without DRM is now available via a streaming-only service, under a monthly subscription model. Summarizing:

- - No more downloads.
- - Geographically restricted to Canada
- - Online only (with caching on smartphones)

Forget about putting MP3s on your Ogg Vorbis player (or any mp3 player!). Here's the article in French:
http://blogues.canoe.ca/technosterone/critiques-express/essayez-zik-ca/

Canoe is a Quebecor web property - ah, convergence :|

Have a nice weekend,

Fabian


- --
- --
Fabián Rodríguez

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: PGP/Mime available upon request
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

iEYEARECAAYFAk9/abMACgkQfUcTXFrypNXlogCdHNrZJZbVJVucKrTeJ50VYLS1
CIQAn1/k2rpS9J5312kQTw+OMC6fqzy5
=Kpnu
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----