Coca-Cola hopes to enter the growing music download
market by launching its own download service in the UK in
January.
Run by European digital music company On Demand Distribution
(OD2), the music service will offer 250,000 tracks from more
than 8,500 artists. Tracks will cost 99p each.
OD2 will offer a "white label" service running online music
sites for UK and European music businesses, including those offered
by Microsoft's MSN.com, Tiscali and Virgin Entertainment, said
marketing manager Paul Smith.
All major record labels will be involved with the Coca-Cola
site.
"Given the unprecedented level of support that Coca-Cola's
putting into it, the potential customer reach is in the millions,"
he said.
Coca-Cola and OD2 will split the proceeds from the site on a
revenue share model, although Smith would not reveal what
percentage OD2 will receive.
Music service users need to be over 18, as they need a credit
card to buy tracks.
Last week, Coca-Cola announced that it had signed a two-year
deal to sponsor the UK Music Charts from January and a planned
Download Chart.
According to a report released earlier this year by Jupiter
Research, a division of Jupitermedia, the online music market could
be worth $3.3bn by 2008.
A pre-announcement site, allowing potential users to register,
is at
www.mycokemusic.com.
Gillian Law writes for IDG News Service