Plug.In Panel: Retailers Wary Of Sub Services

Music retailers, who have yet to participate in the majors' subscription services, say that given the opportunity, they would be cautious before signing on.

During the Billboard Roundtable yesterday at the Plug.In forum in New York, Scott Young, VP of digital entertainment at Best Buy, said his company has "concerns" about whether the customers would want to buy music the way the services are constructed. Similarly, Daniel Blackman, VP of books/music/video at barnesandnoble.com, said a number of questions needed to be addressed before his company would sign on: Who owns the customer? Who is the merchant of record? What is the potential return on investment?

Don VanCleave, executive direction of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS), said independent merchants can't afford to launch subscription services, "so we have been watching all the money getting spent [by others], while we have been educating ourselves."

--Ed Christman, N.Y.

In other news from Plug.In:

Liquid Audio and Sony Music are selling digital downloads through Sony Electronic's digital music hub, Sony Musiclub. The site--musiclub.sonystyle.com--will also launch a direct sales e-commerce store later this summer featuring more than 100,000 titles on CD, cassette and SuperAudio CD. Musiclub also has announced distribution deals with Pressplay and Rhapsody.

--Brian Garrity, N.Y.

FullAudio is expected to announce a content licensing agreement with Sanctuary Records as early as today. The pact--which will include a provision for burning--marks FullAudio's first deal with an independent label.

--Brian Garrity, N.Y.

Stuart Goldfarb, president/CEO of BeMusic, said his company, which owns myplay, would revive the myplay digital locker service and tie in it with BeMusic's CDNow and BMG Direct. Customers of the latter two operations could qualify for locker service; their music purchases would be accessible from any PC.

--Ed Christman, N.Y.