French Majors Begin Responding To Virgin Stores' Online-catalog Plea

Two French major labels say that they will shortly make catalog available to Virgin Stores France for the music-download service on its Virgin Megastores Web site. The move comes after the retailer complained that only two independent labels were prepared to do so when it recently launched the service.

Expressing his frustration, Virgin Stores deputy director Franck Badoux says, "Virgin is asking the major companies for access to the entirety of their catalog at non-discriminatory prices; that will allow us to exercise our vocation as distributor."

A message on the Web site (virginmega.fr) reads: "Major companies really love music. The proof: They are keeping it for themselves." Visitors to the site, where the new service launched April 24, are invited to sign a petition asking for the cooperation of major labels in licensing their catalogs to Virgin for downloading. Badoux claims that French major labels have declared themselves not yet ready to support the Virgin scheme; others, he says, "refuse to see Virgin as a distributor and instead propose licensing deals."

But Universal France Webmaster Sophie Bramly says that Universal will make its catalog available in a matter of weeks. "It takes longer than one would think, from the international/legal point of view," she says. "But we are very open to giving our catalog to Virgin." Bramly says that groundwork completed in establishing Universal France's own download service, E-compil, has enabled the company to be ready fairly early. "I'm guessing that other labels, since they don't have services like E-compil, have to renegotiate Internet contracts with all the artists. For Universal, that took three years."

Virgin France manager of new-media business development Thibaut Court confirms that tracks from Virgin artists will also be available for downloading soon. "It's a little tedious to get all the administrative and legal matters worked out," Court says. "That explains why we weren't ready at the site's opening. But we are working on it." Other major labels did not respond by press time.

When the site came online, the only material available was from leading French independent labels Wagram Music and Naïve. Users are currently able to download from a catalog of around 400 songs using digital services from Tornado Group. They can choose to pay for them individually or through subscription plans, such as a 20-track offer for 18.50 euros ($17.20). Prices for individual tracks vary from around 1.75 euros ($1.62) to 2.75 euros ($2.55), and prepaid cards will be available starting in September.

Virgin acknowledges that certain conditions will eventually be necessary for the project's long-term success, including a decline in the proliferation of illegal music files. But Virgin Stores France president Jean-Noël Reinhardt insists, "We are participating in the creation of a market that does not yet exist."

Reinhardt says that Virgin Stores has invested a "small" sum, of around 800,000 euros ($742,500), in launching the project. The initial goal, he says, is "not to make turnover but to create an offer that will enable us to build the market."