Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner
Music Group have agreed to provide a new peer-to-peer (P2P) digital
file-sharing network, Peer Impact, with access to their catalogues
of music.
The service, which is due to launch early next year, will only
be available to US users. Instead of swapping MP3s, it sounds like
users will exchange files protected by Digital Rights Management
(DRM).
Peer Impact is being launched by New York-based Wurld Media,
which says its business model is patent pending.
"The on-line media market is presently split between authorised
legal paid-download services and unauthorised free services; the
consumer is stuck somewhere in the middle, and that's where Peer
Impact comes in," said Wurld Media's CEO and Chairman Greg
Kerber.
He continued: "From the beginning our objective has been to
reach out to the consumer and help build a secure and legal
file-sharing community, created by – and for – the fan, but which
also ensures that digital-rights owners get compensated."
