Music Download Delivery
Coke Enters the Music Business
LONDON -- Coca-Cola is launching an Internet music download service in Britain next month, the first consumer brand to jump into Europe's crowded Internet music market, the company said on Monday.
The soft drinks maker said that in January it will begin selling music downloads from a catalog of 250,000 songs supplied from each of the five major music labels.
The artists range from Eminem to Elvis, delivered through a partnership with OD2, a British music-download company. The companies did not announce the pricing plan for downloads.
The European market for legal music downloads, though small at the moment, has attracted intense interest from major media companies and retailers ranging from Virgin Megastores to Time Warner's AOL unit. Still, the industry-sanctioned sites are running well behind the free file-sharing services run by Kazaa and iMesh.
Coke, which has huge brand appeal and a massive marketing budget, is expected to bring some much-needed publicity to the subscription download services.
Coke's main rival, PepsiCo, will join forces with Apple Computer iTunes download service in a 100-million-song "under-the-cap" giveaway beginning in February. The Apple service is not available in Europe.
Posted by Craig at December 11, 2003 12:34 AM