Ubuntu One Music Store Available for Public Testing

Canonical has opened up public beta testing of the upcoming Ubuntu One Music Store slated for release along with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx about a month from now. If you have been testing Ubuntu Lucid on your machine or firing it up occasionally in a virtual box, you should now see a link to the Ubuntu One Music Store in Rythmbox below the existing Jamedo and Magnatune stores. With only a month until launch, Ubuntu developers are asking users to put the store through its paces to iron out any remaining bugs.

"Today is the day that we are expanding testing by inviting all Ubuntu Lucid users to take part in the public beta of this new feature," the official announcement on the Ubuntu One blog read. "Our primary goal for this phase of testing is to ensure that the purchase and download experience is flawless. Integrating a cloud service like Ubuntu One with buying music is new for digital music stores. While it brings many benefits to users, it also adds technical complexity that increases the opportunity for problems to occur."

The Ubuntu One Music Store is a fresh, new approach to buying music online. Digital music stores have been around for years now and the formula is tried and tested. Canonical has partnered with 7digital, a popular UK-based online music store. The tracks are offered DRM-free usually in the MP3 format, but some stray WMA files were still to be found in the Ubuntu One Music Store. The Ubuntu team is working on making sure WMA files are removed as an option. The tracks retail for €0,99 with albums usually sold at a discount.

So far nothing spectacular or even unusual, just your run-of-the-mill online music store. But the interesting touch, and the reason for the 'One' in the name, is that all the tracks will be stored online with the Ubuntu One cloud storage service. This means that the tracks will be available to you wherever you can access the service, even through the web-based interface.

There are a few issues with this approach, though. For one, the 2 GB free storage limit may be filled rather quickly. Some people may not like to pay for the music and then, additionally, for the cloud storage to keep it. Also, people in different locations will get access to different music, but this issue is out of the hands of the developers and has to do with how the labels license it. Still, if Canonical can pull it off, the Ubuntu One Music Store could prove a real winner. For now, you can help the developers polish the service by testing it and providing feedback.