Digital music download service eMusic was launched across Europe, including Malta, yesterday in a bid to oust market leader iTunes.
EMusic has been launched in all 25 European Union member nations, going head-to-head with iTunes in established download markets such as Germany and Britain, but also plying its wares in Malta – which previously had no access to digital music downloading. iTunes does not offer a digital download service in this country.
The company says that the service it offers differs to others because it is the only large-scale business capable of offering downloads in MP3 format, meaning they can be played on any portable music player including the iPod. eMusic will offer music lovers a catalogue of 1.7 million tracks.
It is geared to a more mature audience than iTunes, preferring the 25-54-year-old age bracket, rather than the teenage group.
EMusic carries 1.7 million songs from 8,500 independent record labels, including tracks from Johnny Cash, Bob Marley, Franz Ferdinand and Bjork. eMusic features established and emerging artists in every genre: rock, jazz, hip-hop, blues, classical, country, folk, electronic, world and reggae; included are familiar names such as Johnny Cash, Bob Marley, Ray Davies, Miles Davis and Paul Weller, established rule-breakers Basement Jaxx, and the Fall, and breaking new artists like the Rapture, the Pipettes and Four Tet. Its best-selling labels include Naxos, KOCH, Stax, Prestige, Concord/Fantasy and Beggars Group.
With a share of about 13 per cent in the United States, eMusic outstrips other well-known brands including Rhapsody, MSN Music, Napster, Yahoo and AOL, but remains a distant second to iTunes’ 60 per cent share.
“Our goal is to very quickly establish in the EU the position we have achieved in the US: to be the number one seller of independent music and to be the number two digital music
service overall,” said chief executive David Pakman.
The New York based company is also planning to launch local-language download services in Germany, France, Italy and Spain in 2007.
The European sites will charge a monthly subscription fee that ranges from £8.99, or euro12.99, for 40 downloads, to £14.99, or euro20.99, for 90 downloads.
eMusic consumers own the songs they download, whereas subscribers to many other services lose their libraries if they stop paying monthly retainers. eMusic worked with Dutch author society Buma/Stemra to create the first pan-European licensing agreement, enabling it to launch in 25 countries simultaneously.