UBC Media, a UK analog and digital broadcaster, says it’s investing in technology that will let digital radio listeners download music at the push of a button. Listeners would simply push a button on their digital radio, and the song playing would be downloaded and transferred to their PC. The news is short on specifics, but I’m assuming the song would be downloaded via the Internet just to a computer, not to the radio itself.
This is an area mobile technologies like Visual Radio are examining, and one that’s in dire need of dual-delivery systems that send songs both to a portable player or mobile device and a computer. While the purchase mechanism of this type of download is very cool, it would better to be able to get the song on your music device at the same time as your PC. It’s looking to take advantage of impulse buying, but how long will it hold when that impulse isn’t immediately fulfilled, but rather whenever you can get back in front of your PC?
Update: My colleague at TheFeature, Mike Masnick, weighs in with some thoughts on the single-device-delivery problem.
Update Update: Eric Lin of PhoneScoop points out that the new American MVNO Amp’d will offer dual-download of content to both phone and PC. Thanks Eric!
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