Downloading music is an activity of many internet users nowadays and most of the downloaded software is not paid for. After a long time the record industry woke up and the services MusicNet and PressPlay were opened. For now the services have never been a real success.
Reasons for this are that they have limited amount of songs and the songs available for download were restricted by digital protection technologies. Today one of these disadvantages could be history as MusicNet and Pressplay
are close to reaching licensing agreements that would allow both of them to offer songs from all five big music companies.
The deals will fill one of the major gaps that both operations have faced in competing with free, unlimited peer-to-peer song-swapping outfits. Despite their ties to the top names in the music business, the two services have been unable to offer full catalogues of artists from all five companies. MusicNet is backed by AOL Time Warner, EMI and Bertelsmann AG, along with RealNetworks. Pressplay is owned by Sony and Vivendi Universal, and it has already had a licensing deal with EMI. |
MusicNet has completed a licensing agreement to use music from Universal, the biggest music company, and is close to a deal with Sony, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Pressplay said yesterday it had signed a deal with BMG, Bertelsmann's music unit. People with knowledge of the matter say the service also is close to reaching terms with Warner Music Group.
This is another step in the good direction, but the services are still not able to compete with file sharing networks like KaZaA, who offer large collections of unrestricted files for free. More information here.
Source: Yahoo.com
