Destra launches largest legal online service in Australia

December 20, 2003

GristyMcFisty used our news submit to tell us that Destra, Australia's largest DRM provider has made digital music history over there by creating the first legal download service. Along with that, they have allied themselves with a variety of retailers and for the next three months you can purchase music online without a credit card.

DestraMusic will increase their music catalogue with plans to have over 500,000 tracks available for purchase by mid-2004. Right now, they are offering tracks at 99 cents per download. Customers can also go to any of DestraMusic's retail partners and buy all the latest tracks as well. You can go here to see a list of some of their partners, including JB Hi-Fi, Sanity, Whammo, Rome, Powerhouse and others.

The music will be offered in the Windows Media Player format and will have built in technology for customers to copy the songs onto a CD three times, as well as to a portable media player, but will not allow the tracks to be transferred to pirate websites.

Destra's CEO, Mr. Domenic Carosa said, "We have been planning for this day for the last three years. Finally it has arrived and we are making music history! The music industry will never be the same again as we launch our new legal system for selling music."

DestraMusic.com (100% owned by Destra) will be offering online digital music through its online retail partners '“ Sanity.com.au, HMV.com.au, JBHiFi.com.au and ChaosMusic.com.au, with just under 100,000 tracks from the major record companies such as EMI and Festival Mushroom Records, all in time for the lucrative Christmas sales.

"Over the next few months, we are going to see some very exciting marketing campaigns by various large companies that will incorporate the latest songs downloaded over the Internet. Such as, "…buy six bottles of soft drink and get four hot new songs for free"…the possibilities are endless," Domenic added.

DestraMusic.com also announced last week another Aussie first. Over the next 90 days, its retail music clients, Sanity, HMV, JB HiFi and ChaosMusic, will allow customers to redeem pre-paid music vouchers on their websites. These vouchers will be available for purchase at over 10,000 retail outlets Australia wide without the need for credit cards.

The vouchers will be vended at terminals and will work like pre-paid mobile phones. Customers can visit a participating outlet and pay any dollar amount toward a music voucher and then be given instructions on the docket to retrieve their online music purchase without the need for credit cards.

'This is a first for the online music market in Australia and it reinforces Destra's position as the market leader by providing every opportunity to purchase online music, particularly for younger consumers under 18 years of age." Mr. Domenic Carosa added.

You can visit our Music Downloads, P2P and Legal Issues Forum to discuss this new service for the folks down under. We seem to have a thread already started there by one of our Aussie members. 🙂

Source: Music Industry News