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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Annette who wrote (78016)	9/22/1999 4:57:00 PM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

Funny, I must be really out of the loop, because I though AMZN was just a bookseller.... ;-) Actually, they need an add-on like NetRadio and CD Point integrated into them.... LOL, you know at this point I'm wondering who is better off... those that are out of the loop or those inside it... its information overload with these stocks and they don't trade on rationality anyway... :-)

To: Annette who wrote (78016)	9/22/1999 8:49:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

FOCUS-Amazon.com plans to sell music for download By Scott Hillis LOS ANGELES, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc. <AMZN.O> says it will sell music for download over the Internet, possibly by next year, as the online retailing giant moves to cash in on the revolution of marketing disc-free music over the Web. In addition to its inventory of hundreds of thousands of compact discs, Seattle-based Amazon already lets customers download for free several dozen songs by musicians and groups such as Sarah McLachlan, Barry White and Jethro Tull. Music downloads let customers click on a song and transfer it directly to their computer hard drives to be played later or transferred to a portable playback device. "Obviously, we will be selling downloads in the future," Jennifer Cast, general manager of Amazon's music store, said in an interview with Reuters late Tuesday. "We plan to leverage our leadership in online music selling CDs into selling downloads." Although Cast declined to give a precise timetable for rolling out sales of downloads, she said initial sales could start in the next few months, with a major push likely to come next year. "Between now and the end of December, you should see significant efforts to offer a track and to try to sell it," Cast said. "But more likely we'll do something in 2000." Cast's statements were the clearest yet on Amazon's vision of how it will capitalize on new ways to deliver and listen to music. "As handheld players take off and as people start to change the way music is wired in their living rooms, that (download business) will grow," Cast said. "We'll be integrating it into the store in lots of ways," she said, noting that Amazon could offer songs in conjunction with books and on-line auctions. Several startup companies offer music downloads. Most, like MP3.com Inc. <MPPP.O> post mostly independent artists and let customers get songs for free. Others, like EMusic.com Inc. <EMUS.O>, sell tracks by well-known musicians for 99 cents each or $8.99 for a whole album. While analysts are unanimous in saying that downloadable music is the wave of the future, they caution it will be several years before sales become widespread. Forrester Research sees sales at $10 million next year but growing to $1.1 billion in 2003. A major issue slowing the debut of online music sales has been reluctance by major record labels to embrace a medium they fear will fuel music piracy. To address those concerns, Amazon uses a compression format developed by Liquid Audio Inc. <LQID.O> that squeezes a music file to a fraction of its former size so it can be sent quickly over the Internet while keeping CD-quality sound. Unlike the popular MP3 format, Liquid has built-in security so the track cannot be copied. Microsoft Corp. <MSFT.O>, RealNetworks Inc. <RNWK.O> and AT&T Corp. <T.N> make rival formats. Cast said Amazon was "very, very happy" with Liquid. Initial attempts to convince labels of the potential of music downloads were "like pulling teeth," Cast said, adding that several successful promotions using downloads had changed a lot of minds. "It's proven now and it (downloads) can pump up sales. We've spent a lot of time talking to labels and everyone is eager to experiment," Cast said.