EMI Music has signed up to legit P2P company Mashboxx, the one run by former Grokster chief Wayne Rosso. The deal will see EMI's North American catalogue made available via the legit P2P platform when it finally launches - it is still in a beta testing phase at the moment.
As previously reported, there are a number of companies developing legit P2P systems that charge users a subscription fee which is passed back to signed up content owners based on how often their music is shared. As previously observed, while a lot of energy has been put into the whole legit P2P thing, it is as yet still an untested domain, with some cynics questioning whether music fans using current free-to-use P2P software will ever opt to pay a subscription fee, despite the legal and technological flaws on the non-legit systems. Meanwhile it remains to be seen how well pay-to-use P2P competes with the likes of iTunes or, more importantly, the subscription based download services like Napster which offer similar packages in terms of the quantity of music available to their subscribers.
In fact, when the major legit P2P services, like Mashboxx, finally launch they may well have quite a lot in common with Napster et al, carrying other services in addition to the basic P2P facility. Mashboxx is reportedly planning to include a 'try before you buy' service which enables subscribers to listen to new tracks for up to five times for free before buying them.