The world’s biggest record labels are finally rolling out their own online subscription services for music fans right smack in the middle of the holiday season.
In coming weeks, music fans who have taken advantage of free-but-controversial song-swapping services such as Napster, Audiogalaxy and Kaaza will be introduced to similar services that have been developed by major record labels, Reuters reports.
MusicNet — owned by media firm RealNetworks Inc., AOL Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Music, EMI Group Plc and Bertelsmann AG’s BMG — is set to launch in early December via RealNetworks’ RealOne service at an expected monthly cost of $10 to $20 a month.
AOL plans to distribute MusicNet by year-end, while Vivendi Universal’s Universal Music and Sony Music plans to roll out MusicNet’s rival Pressplay sometime in December.
The launches, originally promised for late summer or early fall of this year, are intended to help boost CD sales after record labels around the world have been hit hard by poor album sales and online piracy, Reuters reports.
Since SoundScan began monitoring sales 10 years ago, labels sold 5 percent less worldwide in the first half of the year and about 11 million fewer albums in the United States alone.
But what will make online music fans — who made up part of Napster’s 70 million users since its launch in May 1999 — pay for a service they are now getting at no cost?
Most free online music services are facing lawsuits brought by the Recording Industry Association of America for music copyright violations, and could eventually be shut down.
These fee-based services offer a new way to get into the online music industry, as labels look into what consumers are willing to pay for in order to download a song directly into their computer.
In order to succeed, the services will need to offer good file quality, a big selection of music, artist information and art, Reuters reports. Portability is also key, since users might want to burn songs into portable MP3 players.
“There’s so much advertising dollars urging consumers to go to the mall that this is a tough time to break in a new online service,” an executive with a label associated with MusicNet told Reuters. “But they are going forward because so many of the CEOs have promised they’d launch.”
Erik Flannigan, vice president of music services programming for Real Networks, thinks launching in December might be an advantage for labels hoping to have the service up and running smoothly by January.
“January is an incredibly quiet time for new album releases. We think January is when you can really hit this service,” Flannigan said. “Part of our marketing effort will be in playing up to that period.”
