Online music store

An online music store is an Internet service that sells audio, usually primarily music, on a per-song and/or subscription basis. The realization of the market for these services grew widespread around the time of Napster, a music and file sharing service created by Shawn Fanning that made a major impact on the Internet scene during the year 2000. Some services have tethered downloads, meaning that playing songs requires an active membership.

Related Topics:
Internet - Napster - File sharing - Shawn Fanning - 2000

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 2000 Sony became the first company to make music from one of the major labels available for sale on the Net. The big record companies were apprehensive to license their catalogs to outside companies and refused the late 90's requests of MP3.com and Emusic (then called Goodnoise) to sell digital song downloads. They eventually decided to start their own services, which they could control directly.

Related Topics:
MP3.com - Emusic

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sony's service turned out to be an ill-conceived affair. Not only was the service difficult for consumers to navigate and use, Sony's expensive pricing of US$3.50 per song track turned off many early adopters of the service. Furthermore, as MP3 Newswire pointed out in its review of the service, users were actually only renting the tracks for that $3.50. After a certain point the files expired and could not be played again without repurchase. The service quickly failed.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Undaunted, the record industry tried again. Universal Music Group and Sony teamed up with a service called Duet, later renamed PressPlay. EMI, AOL/Time Warner and BMG teamed up with MusicNet. Again, both services struggled, hampered by high prices and heavy limitations on how downloaded files could be used once paid for. In the end, consumers chose instead to flock to the free file sharing programs, which were far more convenient to use and free to boot.

Related Topics:
PressPlay - MusicNet

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Non-label services like Emusic and Listen.com (now Rhapsody.com) sold the music of independent artists to keep in the game, but it wasn't until Apple Computer introduced iTunes in 2003 that sales of digital downloads took off.

Related Topics:
Apple Computer - ITunes - 2003

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~