Posted: 07th Dec, 2010 By: MarkJ

BSkyB UK ( Sky Broadband ) has decided to close its legal music downloading service,
Sky Songs, which had originally been designed to help dissuade Sky's ISP customers from becoming involved in alternative "
illegal" (unlawful)
copyright file sharing (P2P) activity. The move is a major setback for Rights Holders, which have so far been unable to help ISPs produce more attractive solutions.
It's understood that the service, which was launched in partnership with
Universal Music during October 2009 (
here), failed to attract enough customers. That's hardly surprising because Sky also did a dismal job of promoting the service to existing broadband customers, not to mention that it didn't offer anything new over their more established rivals (
iTunes and
Spotify).
A Sky Spokesperson said:
"We’ve taken the difficult decision to close Sky Songs. Although we are extremely proud of the service we built and the experience it offers, we just didn’t see the consumer demand we had hoped for. As Sky Songs demonstrates, we are a business that takes risks and innovates, but at the same time, we’re pragmatic and act decisively when a new venture isn’t working out."
The service has apparently already begun closing existing accounts, although its website still appears to be taking on new subscribers. Sky Songs will be completely removed from the internet on
7th February 2011.
Meanwhile Sky's closest rival, Virgin Media UK, is still trying desperately to launch a DRM-free "
Unlimited" music download and streaming subscription service of its own. However it was recently forced to delay its ambitions, again, due to yet more hassle from Rights Holders (
here).