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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=1601
Major Retailers Form On-line Music Coalition - and there may be a role for iPod
By Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
January 28th 2003
Best Buy, Tower in venture to deliver music on-line.
Six of the US's largest retailers have taken an equity stake in a new on-line music
venture. Best Buy, Virgin and Tower Records, among others, have formed Echo, an music
e-tailer, which will market and sell music for download, according to Singapore's
Straits Times. http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/techscience/story/0,4386,168738,00.html
Although the new Echo venture has yet to obtain licenses from record companies to sell
on-line music, the plan is to use the site as a distribution center, with the various
equity partners offering both cooperative and competitive deals. The various
retailers' own websites would be used for music sales and downloads.
The story relates the retailers' move to slowing audio CD sales, which have fallen by
over 100 million units over the last two years, a situation record companies largely
blame upon the rise of pirated CDs and illicit MP3 distribution on line. The article
also says that the move represents a truce and possibly a new era of cooperation
between record companies and retailers; previously, record companies have tried - and
most failed - at selling music on line.
But plummeting CD sales have changed that, and record companies and retailers are
beginning to cooperate on CD sales.
And how does the iPod fit in? The story says "The retailers might also enable
customers to download music in stores using portable devices, like the Apple iPod."
Analysis: It would be cool, yes, to take your iPod into a store and, say, download the
MP3s of the CD you just bought, direct to the 'Pod. Maybe remixes, live versions or
bonus tracks. Rather than fighting MP3 devices like iPod, the music industry and
retailers can co-opt them by giving consumers the incentive to buy the music and get a
whole lot of other goodies, instead of beating down the doors at the Capitol with
fists full of dollars to get draconian legislation on the books.
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