In a fight to win back fans from the "gray zone" of online song-swapping services, the music industry is borrowing a trick from its nemeses: free music downloads. Unfortunatly, the program will be open only to European Web users...
For one day, this Thursday 3rd October 2002, music fans in Europe will be able to download, stream or burn onto their hard drives a selection of tracks from 6,000 artists including ColdPlay, Dido and Elvis Presley. From participating web sites (MSN UK, HMV, Freeserve, Tiscali to name but a few), you can sign up and get £5 worth of music credits FREE to spend as you want.
It is part of a marketing ploy called "Digital Download Day" devised by British firm OD2, a technology company specializing in digital music distribution and co-founded by recording artist Peter Gabriel. OD2 has secured the digital streaming rights to 100,000 songs from a variety of major and independent music labels.
Streaming a track for a single listen usually costs one penny, downloading a track onto a computer hard drive costs 10 pence and burning a track onto a CD would cost one pound.
News source: Reuters
View: On Demand Distribution (OD2)
View: Places to get your free music :- www.msn.co.uk - www.hmv.co.uk - www.tiscali.co.uk - www.freeserve.com
