Emi Asia To Offer Downloads For Sale Through Soundbuzz

EMI Asia has forged a strategic partnership with Asian digital music distributor Soundbuzz to provide commercial downloads throughout the Asia-Pacific region. It's a partnership that the companies claim is the first such between a major label and a digital music retailer in the territory.

The deal will enable consumers to sample and buy music and videos from EMI's international repertoire at soundbuzz.com. "We will decide which catalogs will be made available later, but it should be consistent with the agreement we already have in place in the U.S., but more suited to Asian consumer tastes," says EMI Music Asia president/CEO Matthew Allison.

EMI expects to begin offering single and album downloads in the Asia-Pacific by year's end, although no prices have yet been set. The files will be secured using Microsoft's digital rights management services.

"This is a landmark moment for the Asian music industry," claims Soundbuzz co-founder/CEO Sudhansu Sarronwala, "as Soundbuzz becomes the only digital music retailer in Asia to partner with a global record label for the sale of secured downloadable content for digital distribution throughout the Asia-Pacific region. EMI has seized upon new media and become one of the leading companies in this area. The reason we have partnered with them is because they have shown themselves to be very creative and forward-thinking here."

Allison says the deal with Soundbuzz is the first in a series of online initiatives planned by EMI Asia. "We plan to invest a great deal of resources and time into developing our business," Allison says, adding that EMI will work with Soundbuzz in selecting EMI repertoire for the download service. Not all of EMI's repertoire will be available for downloads initially. He adds that pricing will be "consistent with what's retailing in the market."

Sarronwala says Soundbuzz will help EMI get a fix on the market. "We will take the feedback from our Internet audiences and see if it is a mirror of the same trend in the [non-digital] market," he says. "If there are differences, then we can share this with EMI. We plan to do this market by market."

In July, EMI launched a commercial digital music download trial with major music retailers in North America, and more recently, in Europe the group signed a nonexclusive agreement to provide commercial music downloads using U.K.-based Tornado Group's Digital Media Distribution System via European retail Web sites.

Allison will not say if the number of EMI tracks on offer via the Soundbuzz deal will be similar to a recent North America trial download agreement between EMI and major music retailers there offering digital downloads; that pact includes 40 albums and 100 singles.