CD Wow! (UK) Loudeye MusicStore
Not a marquee name, but another user.
>> CD Wow! Enters Download Biz
Tony Smith
The Register
5th May 2005
tinyurl.com
CD Wow!, the UK online music retailer is to start selling digital music downloads, courtesy of distributor Loudeye, the pair announced today.
Details are sketchy - the company did not respond to our request for more information. But CD Wow! pitches itself as a low-cost retailer, with many of the CDs it offers priced below the £7.99 digital music services like Napster and iTunes commonly charge. CD Wow!'s CD prices included postage and packing.
CD Wow! may have to price album downloads and, by implication, single-track downloads too, below the equivalent CD - or the service will look expensive. This is unlikely to inconvenience Apple - CD Wow's downloads are unlikely to be iPod-compatible, even though the company makes a big play of the iPod line up it offers for sale - but it may well cause trouble for other Windows Media Audio-based suppliers.
Like other cut-price online retailers, CD Wow! has won increasing business from music, DVD and games buyers. The company has also built a number of partnerships with well known newspapers, ISPs and websites to provide CD retail services. Unlike pure-play download services, CD Wow! already has plenty of traction with UK music buyers.
This is good news for Loudeye, which this week announced a first quarter net loss of $7.5m (seven cents a share) on sales of $6m, up 200 per cent on the year-ago quarter, but down nine per cent on Q4 FY2004's $6.6m sales total. Similarly, net loss was up from the previous quarter's $5.6m (seven cents a share) and from the year-ago quarter's loss of $2.8m (four cents a share).
Deferred revenue - essentially money received for work not yet undertaken - came to $6.5m at the end of the quarter, up from $5.7m at the end of Q4 FY2004 and $796,000 at the end of Q1 FY2004.
Loudeye expects to see sales of around $35m for FY2005 as a whole. It will not say when or if it expects to become profitable. It had just under $35m in the bank at the end of the quarter. ® <<
>> CD WOW! Moves into Digital Music With Launch of Loudeye-Powered Online Music Store
Loudeye PR
London
May 5, 2005
tinyurl.com
Loudeye Corp. LOUD, a worldwide leader in business to business digital media solutions, today announced the launch of a digital music store for CD WOW!, a leading online retailer of CDs, DVDs, consumer electronics and games.
The CD WOW! music store allows consumers to find and discover music through CD WOW!'s chart-based organizational system that's made CD WOW! a popular online destination for CD purchases. The chart based architecture helps consumers quickly identify the most popular tracks in various categories, while still being able to search the entire catalog as desired.
The CD WOW! site will offer music downloads alongside traditional CD formats and will also offer a range of portable music devices compatible with the CD WOW! music store.
Philip Robinson, founder of CD WOW!, said, "Our ethos is to provide our customers with a 'Best Value Always' promise with the highest quality customer service and our partnership with Loudeye reflects this ethic. Loudeye's ability to rapidly launch the music store was also key in our decision to choose them as our provider for the service."
Philip Shepherd, Loudeye's head of strategic partnerships, EMEA, said, "We are delighted CD WOW! has chosen us for their digital music needs. The music downloading marketing is proliferating and maturing rapidly and the more brands offering services, the wider the choice for consumers. The launch of CD WOW!'s music store highlights how existing retail companies can rapidly expand their existing business to include digital music downloads using Loudeye's services." <<
CD WOW!
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