RNWK-Sources: Warner Music to Unveil Digital Plans Monday
By Sue Zeidler
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Warner Music Group on Monday will announce plans to sell digital downloads of 100 songs from artists like Barenaked Ladies and Paul Simon starting in November, sources familiar with the situation said.
Warner, a unit of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX - news), is expected to expand its digital offering to more than 1,000 digitized albums and singles from superstar artists including Tori Amos, R.E.M., Phil Collins and Madonna (news - web sites), in the months following the launch.
Major Internet retailers such as Walmart.com, the online venture of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT - news), and Amazon.com Inc. (NasdaqNM:AMZN - news) are supporting Warner's initiative, the sources said.
Warner is the last of the big five record labels to announce a digital distribution initiative as the industry faces competition in the online arena from the controversial song-swap service Napster, which lets fans swap songs for free by trading MP3 files, a compression format that turns music on compact discs into small computer files.
The record labels are embroiled in a fierce court battle against Redwood City, Calif.-based Napster Inc., which they say facilitates online piracy by allowing people to download songs from other people's computers without the permission of the artists or labels.
Warner worked with software company RealNetworks Inc. (NasdaqNM:RNWK - news) a leader in streaming media to develop an infrastructure to make the downloads available to consumers in the U.S. and Canada via the online retailers, sources said.
The digital download infrastructure is designed to support several popular playback formats endorsed by the music industry, according to the sources.
The record companies have been criticized for moving too slow into the digital sphere as programs like Napster have attracted millions of users to its service.
Experts said Warner's and the other companies' initiatives are not considered an answer to the Napster dilemma but merely a reflection of the industry's willingness to enter and experiment within the new burgeoning market.
Seagram Co. Ltd.'s Universal Music Group, the world's largest record label, began offering songs for sale in a digital format over the Internet over the summer.
Sony Music Entertainment (6758.T), EMI Group Plc (EMI.L) and BMG, the music unit of Bertelsmann AG (BTGGga.F) have unveiled online strategies over the past few months as well. |
