Since I posted about Canonical’s Music Store project, a few comments rained down from above. I’ll abuse my blog to give some answers.
Oh, and you forgot to say “Welcome back, Stefano” ! 
Michael:
This would be great, but it just seems to have a pipedreamy feel to it. Perhaps I’m too cynical to believe it would actually happen.
I don’t see any reason for it to be unlikely. I think chances are it will happen.
Linux Affic:
I can NOT stand iTunes. It is without a doubt, unquestionably the most overrated useless POC software ever designed. With that said, it would be nice to see a ‘GNU/Linux’ based music store similar to iTunes/Rhapsody. Just with a COMPLETELY different interface!! Automatic conversion of mp3/wmas to .ogg’s would be a plus.
My guess is that the only 2 people who actually really like the iTunes interface are Steve Jobs.. and his dog.
Expanding the last statement, the format is one of the points that make Music Store controversial. The vast majority of Mp3 players plays, guess., Mp3. So the Mp3 format is needed to reach the mainstream folk. On the other hand, Ogg is needed and strongly required by the FOSS folks. Surely an automatic conversion would be handy.
ghabuntu:
Hello Stef
You know I see nothing wrong if we should have such a service from Canonical. If that is one of the means through which the company can stand on its feet financially and continue to give us what we are getting, I see no problem.One thing I can be sure of is that if such a thing should materialize, then the music is going to be in the open format.
I see nothing wrong as well, for sure ! I will support the project, whether Foss or closed source.
Do0d:
Doh! I blogged about this an hour ago and it seems it’s old news! Oddly enough we seem to have followed the same train of thought; something that got me expelled from university!It does seem a tantalizing little discussion, and hopefully one that will be streamed (audio) as it’s incredibly vague as to what they’re proposing so far – more so with the regards to “Ubuntu One Music Store”.
Eheh, follow the leader. :-p
I’m joking of course. Beside that, you interestingly raise the same issue as I. There is no specification draft. Usually to have a proposal considered for discussion at UDS you have to create a detailed specification and market it to the rest of the community in the hope it will be considered for inclusion.
As this project comes from above, though, there is no draft, which feels disappointingly disorienting. Not a problem, as everything will be cleared out in 2 days. Still it leaves me wonder if it’s because of no time or because it is some kind of surprise. 
As Mark Shuttleworth manifested recently some doubt about the “noise” in open development, may it be the second ? (please don’t flame me about this one, thanks)
Starcannon:
I never understood online music stores to be controversial; indeed they seem very mainstream and normal.I’ll buy music from Canonical if they make it happen.
Selling copyrighted items online and especially music and movies gets often controversial. DRM desire by the vendors comes often in the way. Pricing is much debated. And there’s the file format war (Mp3 ? Ogg ?), with patents and counter-patents. (even when the content is free of charge, see the HTML 5 debate).
Finally, there are the commercial agreements with the majors, which is the only way to get mainstream music into the store. And majors are not good puppies. Even Apple, which is incredibly powerful – given the market share of iPod/iTunes), had its problems to get good conditions from them.
Even beside the classic issues will the store publicize items from the “good stores” like Jamendo and Magnatune?
Will the store be open source ? Being part of Ubuntu One, I’d say no, not fully.
I like the project, but music stores always raise discussion, and being this the first large scale Linux’s one will likely shake things even more.
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Oh, as the final thing, I’m not being evil, I’m just blogging
[screenshot picture shamefully stolen from the OMG ubuntu post about the store]
Would this music store “sell” free music/audiobooks/podcasts? Also could it be used as a tool to promote CC-licensed work?
Ah, and I hope they make a way to integrate into current music players, perhaps as plugins, so folks can browse and purchase music without leaving their own music players.
Or would that be too iTunes-y?
Banshee will automatically transcode your files to a supported format when you use it to transfer songs to your portable player (e.g. FLAC to AAC, or somesuch). I don’t know if Rhythmbox has such functionality, but if properly implemented, it could be a user-experience non-issue. I say “could” because the issue of patented codecs will cause serious concerns – i.e. Canonical can’t be seen to encourage people to use unlicensed MP3 codecs, and can’t sell files that don’t play on Ubuntu out of the box, so there’s an impasse there for people who don’t already have codecs installed and working.