News

Love it or loathe it, Internet music is here to stay.

Universal Music Group acknowledged this reality July 9 with an agreement to make approximately 1000 albums available through EMusic's downloadable music service. The albums represent a "cross-section of UMG's back catalog," according to a joint press release, and will beef up EMusic's library of more than 225,000 tracks from more than 900 independent labels. Both partners are units of Vivendi Universal SA, the Franco-American media conglomerate much in the news of late due to its cloudy financial picture and the departure of several top executives, including CEO Jean-Marie Messier.

UMG's back-catalog selections will be available to EMusic's more than 50,000 members as MP3 downloads, which can be transferred to CD-Rs or to portable MP3 players. EMusic makes all its tunes available for one monthly subscription fee, and offers potential subscribers a two-week free trial.

UMG executives emphasized that the partnership is part of a "consumer trial program," while admitting that the label is interested in exploring new avenues for sales and marketing. "UMG is committed to expanding the ways we distribute our artists' music through legitimate online services," said Larry Kenswil, president of UMG's eLabs, the division with responsibility for online music. "We hope our experiment with EMusic will help us generate new interest in these titles, while offering a great opportunity for us to give consumers some flexibility," Kenswil stated. "There is clearly huge demand for music delivered digitally and we want to support as many innovative online music services as possible. In order to continue to assess the market, we hope to enter into similar agreements for this segment of our catalog with other subscription services."

"This digital delivery agreement between UMG and EMusic is a milestone for the industry," said Robin D. Richards, CEO of EMusic's parent company, Vivendi Universal Net USA. "Vivendi Universal is committed to being a worldwide pioneer in distributing all types of content to consumers over the Internet and other next-generation platforms." Universal Music Group was the only one of the music industry's "Big Five" to report a profit last year.

Also on July 9, popular Internet service provider Earthlink announced a partnership with MusicMatch and FullAudio. FullAudio is the same music subscription platform used by Clear Channel's MusicNow. MusicMatch is the "online jukebox" that lets users personalize, organize, and stream their music.

Earthlink's five million subscribers will be able to rent, stream, and purchase music through "one integrated product suite," according to the announcement. The ISP's Digital Music Center is claimed to be "the first completely independent online music service," because it has no financial ties to the music industry.

Earthlink will also offer video streaming, according to senior manager Mark Griffith. "For the price of their broadband connection, people will be able to watch videos and listen to streaming radio at no extra charge," Griffith explained, adding that his company hopes the additional services will induce subscriber loyalty and attract new recruits.

For a $9.95/month fee, subscribers to Earthlink Digital Music can "accumulate" 50 audio tracks per month on up to three different computers. Music downloaded from the service cannot be transferred to other devices, and is playable only as long as the subscription is paid up. The FullAudio music library includes songs from all the major labels, as well as many independents, according to FullAudio CEO Chris Gladwin.

A sad note: Gene Kan, pioneering developer of music-swapping peer-to-peer protocol Gnutella, died June 29 at the age of 25. Kan was found in his Belmont, CA home; the cause of death was initially reported as "an accidental gunshot wound." The San Mateo county coroner's office ruled his death a suicide, according to the July 10 edition of the San Jose Mercury News. Kan's family asked that no further details be released. Conspiracy theorists have openly questioned the official explanation for his death.

Gnutella is one of the most persistent and seemingly unstoppable free file-sharing programs on the Internet, because it does not depend on a central server. "There is no head to the Gnutella dragon," Kan was often quoted. Cherry Lane Digital CEO Jim Griffin said of Kan, "Like the network he started, Gene's legacy will prove hard to end."

A 1997 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, with degrees in computer science and electrical engineering, Kan worked most recently on advanced projects in distributed computing at Sun Labs, a unit of Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Gene contributed much to the industry, specifically in the peer-to-peer space," said an official statement from Sun. "Gene brought new ideas to the organization and stretched our thinking. Gene was a trusted friend and colleague, and we will miss him greatly."