DRM
Sky and Universal Partner for Digital Downlaod Service
Announced to Universal Staff this Morning…
Universal and Sky partner on subscription service
14:00 | Tuesday July 22, 2008
Universal and Sky are throwing their considerable weight behind an innovative subscription plus download music service that will launch later this year.
The new, as-yet-unnamed service will offer consumers in the UK and Ireland unlimited access to streamed music from the Universal catalogue, as well as a fixed number of DRM-free MP3 downloads depending on the level of subscription.
All of Universal’s catalogue will be available at launch and Sky is in discussions with other music companies, both majors and independents, and expects to announce further partners soon.
Universal Music Group chairman and chief executive Lucian Grainge explains that the new service will meet a demand among music fans that is currently unfulfilled. “There is an awful amount of unmet demand in music,” he told reporters at a press conference at Universal’s High Street Kensington headquarters this morning.
“We are convinced there is untapped demand that is why we have come together. This is part of our attack, coupled with our defence. Rather than tell people what they can’t do, we want to remind them what they can do, what the opportunities are, what is sexy and what is good value.”
BSky B chief operating officer Mike Darcey added, “It’s clear that there’s huge demand for online music and companies like Sky and Universal Music are well placed to work together to meet consumers’ needs. We aim to offer an easy and affordable service for all UK music fans, while ensuring that artists are properly rewarded for their creativity.”
However, both men denied that the new service is an attempt to unseat iTunes from its market-leading position in digital music. “It is more about offering flexibility and something for people whose demands aren’t met by the iTunes model,” Darcey said.
“iTunes is not going to go out there and be everything for everybody. There is space for other models.”
The music service will be operated by a new joint venture company, in which Sky will be the majority shareholder.
Further details, including pricing and branding, will be announced at a later date.
It will be interesting to see what the “fixed number” of DRM-free tracks will be. They say they are going to offer flexibility, but if this is still DRM laden, it’s never going to be as flexible as users want it to be. This is especially true for the early adopters who are a key demographic to get on board. The “Short Head” is so hugely dominated by iTunes it’s going to be hard to unseat. Amazon has shown that you can make inroads into that position of power, but offering DRM-free tracks is key to that.
