Charter and FullAudio launch digital music service.

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Charter Communications and FullAudio have announced the launch of a digital music service that offers Charter customers more than 100,000 tracks of major-label music from BMG, EMI Recorded Music,

The new service, The Full Audio Digital Music Service, lets users compile custom lists of their favorite music and has the capability to make music recommendations based on customer preferences.

Through its partnership with FullAudio, Charter is able to capitalise on the burgeoning demand for digital music and provide a secure, reliable service to its nearly 6.7 million customers in 40 states.

Charter will use Windows Media Audio, providing the service with audio quality and proven digital rights management capabilities.

Chris Gladwin, CEO of FullAudio said, "Growth in digital music will come in great part from partnerships between forward-thinking companies committed to seamlessly delivering all the benefits of high speed internet access to their customers. This is an important step forward in transforming the dream -- providing customers with instantaneous access to secure digital music -- into a reality and a legitimate business."

The service allows customers to download up to 50 tracks each month for a $9.95 (E9.9) monthly fee or up to 100 tracks each month for a $17.95 (E17.8) monthly fee. Once the music is downloaded from service, customers have unlimited access to the tracks in their library, and over time, music fans can continue to accumulate tracks and build their music collections as long as their subscriptions are active.

FullAudio will allow users to burn their songs to CD early next year. The service also offers limited portability- customers can sync their account to up to three PC's, allowing them to access their music collections from multiple locations. Additionally, once the music is downloaded to their hard drive, customers can play the music anytime.

The inclusion of Windows Media Player 9 will allow users to play CDs and music already stored on their hard-drive. ((Distributed via M2 Communications Ltd - http://www.m2.com))