MTV's latest venture rivals Napster

MTV is going head-to-head with Napster on a new venture allowing music fans to buy on the web.

By Joey Gardiner, 5 April 2001 18:45

NEWS The initiative will make MTV the first company to sell music from all five big record labels to download over the net. The deal is with web music company RioPort who will run the service for MTV on their MTV.com and VH1 internet radio stations. It will enable users to buy both individual songs and albums. Songs will retail for $1-2, however music fans may be disappointed to find that albums will be at no significant discount to traditional retail prices - costing between $10-18. MTV, with RioPort, is the first company to form agreements with all five major labels - BMG, EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros - for selling their music via web downloads. MTV says the site will be up within a month. This week has already seen a joint venture between BMG, Warner Bros and EMI to set up a commercial Napster rival, and Sony and Universal announced their own plans in March. However consumers aren't used to buying music from outlets limited to certain record labels, and analysts aren't sure label-specific initiatives will take off.

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