Yoinked from Slashdot comes word of Deezer, an interesting-looking new music service based in France. Basically you can search their archive of music, queue up a play list, and stream tracks for free directly through your browser. I had a play and found a bunch of music I've been looking for; it's all pretty good quality and is definitely worth a look. You can create a playlist, export to a blog, all sorts of stuff.

It'll get ruined, just like pandora.

Except it's French, and it's been approved by the French organisation that is responsible for doing collecting revenue (press release).

The only way these sorts of things get shut down is by not operating legally (where legally is defined as "in a manner that means the RIAA isn't getting a taste of the action"). Assuming that they are set up properly and paying royalties properly, there shouldn't be any problems.

Of course, if the RIAA still takes offense, they might get the US State Dept. to put pressure on the French govt. I can't see the French giving a crap though.

http://playlistmag.com/news/2007/08/27/wrath/index.php?lsrc=mwrss

the gig is up apparantly....