Does this mean that at least in Europe the record companies are finally getting it? Anyone in the US use Wippit yet? With the RIAA thugs running amuck I'll doubt we'll see EMI showing up for US customers for awhile.
EMI nears download deal with UK's Wippit - sources
Reuters, 10.23.03, 7:53 AM ET
By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent
LONDON, Oct 23 (Reuters) - EMI Group Plc is in advanced talks to sell song downloads on peer-to-peer music service Wippit.com, sources close to the negotiations told Reuters on Thursday. EMI, the world's third largest music company and home to such artists as Coldplay, Norah Jones and Pink Floyd, has embarked on a major push this year to bring more of its catalogue onto the Internet in an effort to derail the momentum of free file-sharing sites such as Grokster and Kazaa.
The enormous supply of songs available for free download online has hobbled the world's largest music companies, which have begun to fight back with industry-sanctioned download services.
In April, the British label agreed to supply 140,000 songs for download through a variety of European digital distributors including Microsoft Corp's MSN, music channel MTV and Italian Internet service provider Tiscali.
An EMI spokeswoman declined to comment on the Wippit deal.
Sources near to the negotiations told Reuters that an agreement has been reached in principle. One source added EMI would make available over 100,000 tracks to Wippit's European customers as soon as next month.
At 1057 GMT, EMI was trading down 4.3 percent at 165.7 pence.
SUBSCRIPTION PLAN
The Wippit deal would also be significant as it would be the first time the label has struck a licence arrangement with a Web service that offers unlimited downloads for a single, annual subscription fee.
Charging consumers for individual downloads has become the preferred business model since the launch this Spring of Apple Computer's iTunes shop, a service that has sold over 14 million tracks since its April debut in the United States.
Established in March, 2000, Wippit is one of Europe's longest running music subscription services with licences from a variety of independent music labels, including Richard Branson's V2 and Telstar. It has a catalogue of 60,000 tracks from artists such as Stereophonics and The Datsuns.
Wippit is somewhat unique from other industry-backed services in that its customers can download songs from Wippit's central computer servers or from other Wippit customers' computers via a peer-to-peer set-up.
Wippit founder Paul Myers said the site has held discussions with each of the major labels over the past year. But he added deals consistently get delayed by the constant merger chatter that consumes the industry's top five music labels.
"We're in contract stage with two more major labels. We're hoping at least one of them we can add by the end of the year," he said.
Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service
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