EMI invests to protect digital downloads

NEWS 'Big five' record label EMI has signed a deal with software firm Roxio to develop a platform to allow the secure burning of digital music onto CDs. The move will let surfers download music from the web onto CDs legally, for a fee. CDs so produced will be impossible to copy any further. The deal will also see EMI buy a stake in newly-floated Roxio, a software company that claims to control 70 per cent of the market for CD-burning software. The venture marks another step forward in the record companies' grudging acceptance of online music. In April, EMI teamed up with BMG, part of media colossus Bertelsmann, and Warner Bros, part of AOL Time Warner, in a venture called MusicNet to develop digital music platforms. The other two major labels - Sony and Vivendi Universal - have announced plans to set up a rival service called Duet. Today's deal highlights how major media players are now hoping to cash in on the massive potential market for digitally-downloadable music popularised by file-sharing service Napster. Music companies are still looking for ways to make money from the model whilst protecting artists' copyrights. Roxio says it will protect copyright by inserting lines of code within the CD which will be ignored by CD players but picked up by CD-writers to prevent it from being copied. However, it remains to be seen whether web-music fans even want to be able to copy the music they get off the net onto CD, and also whether they will be willing to pay for it. In addition, with low penetration of broadband access in the UK and Europe, the time it takes to download CD-quality songs may make the service prohibitively expensive. EMI and Roxio were unclear today about how the deal will eventually look to consumers, and how they will pay for it. They also refused to disclose the amount of EMI's investment in Roxio. Tim Grimsditch, internet analyst at Forrester Research, said: "This is unlikely to be at all mainstream in the short term, as there just isn't the access to broadband to make it feasible. However, it is good to see them dipping their toes in the water - the record companies really need to test everything they can at the moment until they discover a model that works."