With a (RED) Guitar...

The latest outlet for the Project (RED) AIDS-in-Africa support organization has been announced: a music-driven monthly subscription. The details were widely reported yesterday: for $5 per month, a weekly "newsletter" will be distributed including two DRM-free MP3s and a third piece of "surprise" content. Half of the monthly subscription revenue will be donated to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. But the $64,000 (or, as Project (RED) hopes, much, much more) question is, will it work?

It seems to me the two biggest obstacles will be the availability of quality content and the portability of that content. Can I get the same songs offered from (RED) elsewhere? And do I have to be chained to computer to hear my music, or can I burn to a CD or transfer it to a portable music player. When mentioned at all, music subscription services are faintly praised, and at that only when people aren't busy downloading music illegally or purchasing individual tracks or entire albums perfectly legitimately. The primary complaint is that music purchased honorably isn't always compatible with the purchaser's portable music player of choice. In other words, iPod owners have to go through hoops to play some purchased music on their white-headphoned toys, if they can get the music to play at all. WMA files - until yesterday the format of choice Rhapsody and Napster -- won't play on iPods.

The category leader in the music subscriptions solar system is likely Real Networks' Rhapsody program that has in the neighborhood of 1.8 million subscribers. (The company's Q1 2008 Consolidated Statement of Earnings claims 1.875 million "consumer music subscribers" that includes the company's Rhapsody, Rhapsody-to-Go, premium radio and music-on-demand offerings.) I couldn't tell you how many (RED) t-shirts the Gap has sold to date, but undoubtedly (RED) Music would turn cartwheels to obtain anything in the vicinity of 2 million subscribers.

Rhapsody monthly subscription prices are $12.99 for the non-portable (listen on your computer only) offering or $14.99 for Rhapsody-to-Go. These prices entitle you to a library of 4 million tracks. And just yesterday, Real Networks announced that DRM-free MP3s will be available, so going forward you will be able to use Rhapsody purchases on your iPod. Project (RED)'s new initiative won't be burdened by this stumbling block as they are starting out by delivering DRM-free content. A desktop application will deliver the selected (RED) tunes.

And therein may lie the rub. The bigger hurdle for RED will be selection quality and, arguably at some point, quantity. To paraphrase a dot-com slogan from my previous life, portable, player-agnostic content will be king. (RED) Music, or whatever the program will be called -- (RED) Works was bandied around at one point -- will need to insure the weekly newsletters are something special and not what can be found in iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster for pay...or Soulseek, Limewire or another peer-to-peer vehicle for free.

Initially, Don MacKinnon, President of (RED) Content will serve as your virtual DJ. MacKinnon is a long-time music entrepreneur, founder of the Hear Music shops that Starbucks bought to become part of the Starbucks Entertainment offerings. He's responsible for such blockbusters as the Ray Charles' "Genius Loves Company" and the popular "Artist's Choice" compilations where musicians like Sheryl Crow and the Rolling Stones put together mix CDs of favorites and influences. Music is an extremely personal pursuit for many of us and we like to be our own editor. It feels that at some point, no matter how inspired MacKinnon's choices are or how many recalcitrant musicians Bono can arm-bar into contribution, some sort of MP3 vault will need to be developed for separate purchase.

Top-flight names including Emmylou Harris, Death Cab for Cutie, Elvis Costello and (RED) co-founder Bono's side project, U2, have promised to devote new material to the service. But Ben Gibbard will be riding in a water taxi on the Styx long before the (RED) library reaches the 4 million song threshold of Rhapsody.

Admittedly, it's too early to judge. There's no indication yet whether or how (RED) Music non-charter subscribers will be able to get past newsletter offerings, or if there is any sort of song library in the works. From a purely mercenary perspective, a minimum of 8 songs per month for $5 is one of the best for-pay MP3 deals going, nearly half as much as the standard $0.99 per song on most major MP3 sites. Throw in the soft benefit of feeling like you're doing good without lifting a finger (well, just to click on the each new weekly newsletter) and (RED) Music seems to be in good stead. And, really, would you bet against Bono?