MP3, On-line Music, iTunes, MSN Music, Technology, Business, Napster
SOURCE: CNET NEWS.com
PassAlong jump-starts eBay music effort
Published: September 23, 2004, 3:41 PM PDT
By Matt Hines
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Online auction giant eBay is entering the music download business with a service that will market content from major record labels.
The digital music service, which is powered by start-up PassAlong Networks, officially debuted Thursday. PassAlong, which also launched Thursday, is the first company to peddle songs from major labels on eBay's nascent music storefront.
PassAlong has the rights to sell downloads of the entire music catalogs of top-tier recording companies EMI Group, Sony, BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. The company, based in Franklin, Tenn., will offer the music files through both its own Web site and a newly created section on eBay.
As of late Thursday, PassAlong had only posted an auction for a promotion offering a phone conversation with singer Avril Lavigne. But the company's chief executive, Dave Jaworski, said that some 200,000 songs will be made available through both sites by the end of the week. Jaworski said PassAlong has plans to offer more than 500,000 tracks for sale.
"The eBay community has come to expect a reliable, safe environment for doing business, and we're hoping to offer the same kind of quality for music downloads," Jaworski said. "This effort with eBay will offer consumers an opposite of unprotected and illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing networks."
PassAlong differs from many other music download sites in that it allows its paying customers to share music files with others and offers rewards, such as discounts on further downloads, to those who successfully encourage additional people to pay for its content.
The PassAlong debut on eBay marks the first significant step in bringing the auctioneer's emerging digital-music plans to life. eBay's current beta test of its online download marketplace has remained largely unused since its launch in mid-July, causing some industry watchers to wonder where the project stood.
Up until now, eBay's Digital Downloads section has only offered auctions hosted by Warner Bros. Records for cell phone ring tones based on music by the band Green Day, and only one independent musician has been selling his work on that part of the site.
eBay is allowing a select group of pre-approved companies and musicians to sell downloads as part of its initial entry into the online-music space.
"This is part of our ongoing pilot program to test whether the eBay community sees (eBay) as a viable marketplace for the buying and selling of digital music downloads," said Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman.
The PassAlong announcement...
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