Mar 23 2005
Peer Impact beta
I think I saw something about this on Slashdot a while back so I signed up for it and ended up getting invited for the beta but I suspect everyone that signed up got an invite. What it is essentially boils down to an alternative to the iTunes Music Store that actually works similar in regards to finding the songs you want unlike the abomination that is Napster, the prices are the same as well but they are all in protected WMA format and hence not compatible for the iPod so that is a bit of a major stumbling block for me.
The BIG difference though that makes Peer Impact unique is that it uses a kind of P2P network when downloading purchased songs so instead of all downloads coming from the central server you can get them off of peers that have already purchased the song and if you happen to be someone who provides the download then you are provided with a credit in your account to go toward future purchases.
I haven’t been that interested in it though due to the protected WMA format so I haven’t researched how much the credits are nor how does the DRM work if you download the song from someone else where that song would need to already have DRM applied to it. Is it just that the DRM is generic for everyone or are they silly enough to remove the DRM, send it over the wire and then add back the DRM like the currently exploited iTunes Music Store does?
If anyone actually uses Peer Impact regularly and has more insight then I’d love to hear your comments!