THE BIGGEST NEWS IN THE HISTORY OF THE MUSIC BUSINESS . . . or just some hype?

This just came down the wire. Actually, I'd seen the story but hadn't given it much thought this morning. Then, our main Music Biz instructor came in bouncing off the walls with all the zeal and glee of somewone watching The Revolution launch.

Universal has just thrown down the gauntlet.

They are offering their entire catalog. For free. Online. In December.

Here are the stories . . . I don't even know what to make of them yet, but I'll keep adding commentary and news as it happens.

The instructor says that this conclusively makes library music collections defunct except for archive purposes. Itunes will fizzle-- making Ipods primarily video platforms. (He predicts Blockbuster dead in a year.)

What do you think?

*Billboard Biz story* SpiralFrog will be the aggregator -- distributing the tunes and collecting ad revenue.
*Hits Daily Double story* (May require registration.)
"Universal Music Group has made its catalog available to a new species of online animal that calls itself SpiralFrog...and don't you dare call it Frogster. "
*iTWire* "The largest music company in the world, Universal Music, has issued a mind boggling challenge . . . "
What does "some sort of copyright protection" mean? The long arm of the law tends to like specifics.
Boingboing isn't so keen on some of the details emerging. (They have their own list of related links.)