DPA
Los Angeles, (DPA) Vivendi Universal, the world’s largest music company, is putting its muscle behind free downloads of music from the Internet.
According to an announcement the company has reached agreement with New York-based startup Spiralfrog to make its music catalogue available on a free legal download service.
Under the agreement, Spiralfrog will offer Universal’s songs online in the US and Canada and make its money by carrying adverts on the site.
The plan, which is to go live in December, is the latest bid to challenge the popularity of the market-ruling Apple iTunes store, which currently charges 99 cents a download. The new service also hopes to entice users away from the illegal free file sharing sites.
“Offering young consumers an easy-to-use alternative to pirated music sites will be compelling,” Spiralfrog Chief Executive Robin Kent said Tuesday.
Kent, the former head of the Universal McCann advertising agency, said that youngsters would be willing to endure advertisements in exchange for free music as long as the brands and products were relevant to them.
According to the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI,) 60 million MP3 players were sold in 2005, while 420 million single tracks were downloaded, which together with the sale of ringtones brought in some $1.1 billion dollars.
–DPA
