Real World Records, the record company owned by recording artist
Peter Gabriel, has launched an on-line music subscription service
which allows subscribers to pay for a monthly package of 40 songs
for $7.20 with a 60 day free-trial.
Real World Records has entered into the joint venture with Womad
and digital music distributors OD2. The subscription service will
be called “Womad Digital Channel”. Telstar, which records for
artists such as Craig David and Mis-teeq, and German label Edel,
are also signed up to the venture.
The songs will only be able to be played on the subscribers’ own
PC and portable devices and will expire after one month, although
subscribers will have an option to buy a permanent copy of each
track or album.
Subscribers will be able to either choose which 40 songs per
month they receive from Real World’s database of songs, or can
receive 40 tracks chosen by the service.
Napster is planning to launch its own $5 per month subscription
service later this year. It is currently seeking beta testers.
MusicNet and Pressplay are rival music download services also due
for launch before the end of this year, backed by some of the major
record labels.
