EMI Music First Major Music Company To Make Its Entire Digital Music Catalog Available For Sale In Amazon.com’s New Digital Music Store In The U.S.
EMI Music today announced that it has reached an agreement with Amazon.com that will enable Amazon.com to offer EMI’s entire digital catalogue, which is available in a higher quality, DRM-free premium download format, for sale in Amazon.com’s new digital music store, which the retailer separately announced today it will launch later this year in the US. The Amazon.com digital music store will exclusively offer tracks and albums as MP3s free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions. EMI is the first major music company to make its entire digital music catalogue available for sale as part of Amazon.com’s new digital music initiative.
The agreement follows EMI’s launch last month of its new premium download offering, in which the company began offering retailers DRM-free music to sell in the audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality. EMI is releasing the premium downloads in response to consumer demand for DRM-free, high fidelity digital music for use on home music systems, mobile phones and digital music players. EMI’s new DRM-free products will enable full interoperability of digital music across all devices and platforms.
Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group, said, “Amazon.com is synonymous with a great consumer experience, and they have become an important retail partner of ours. I applaud Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com for making this move. Amazon.com’s deep understanding of consumers and vast knowledge of music paves the way for a smooth entry into the digital arena. Their arrival in the digital music market will offer even more consumer choice and will be a big advance in addressing the lack of interoperability which has frustrated many music fans.”
Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com, said, “Our MP3-only strategy means all the music that customers buy on Amazon is always DRM-free and plays on any device. We’re excited to have EMI joining us in this effort and look forward to offering our customers MP3s from amazing artists like Coldplay, Norah Jones and Joss Stone.”
About EMI Music
EMI Music is the recorded music division of EMI Group, the world’s largest independent music company. Its EMI Music division represents artists spanning all musical tastes and genres. Its record labels include Angel, Astralwerks, Blue Note, Capitol, Capitol Nashville, EMI Classics, EMI CMG, EMI Records, EMI Televisa Music, Manhattan, Mute, Parlophone and Virgin. Artists on EMI labels include Lily Allen, The Beatles, Coldplay, Corinne Bailey Rae, The Good The Bad & The Queen, Gorillaz, Norah Jones, The Kooks, Korn, Kylie Minogue, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Joss Stone, 30 Seconds To Mars, KT Tunstall, Keith Urban and Robbie Williams, as well as international artists such as Amaral (Spain), Diam’s (France), Utada Hikaru (Japan), LaFee (Germany), Radja (Indonesia), RBD (Mexico) and Vasco Rossi (Italy).
EMI has been at the cutting edge of the rapidly growing digital music marketplace since it released David Bowie’s ‘Hours’ as the world’s first ever album to be offered as a digital download in 1999. EMI has signed agreements with hundreds of digital partners to distribute its music across the globe. It continues to facilitate the development of a growing range of new digital business models to enable fans to experience and purchase its artists’ output through a number of different platforms including advertising-supported online music streaming in China through Baidu, legal peer-to-peer agreements with QTrax, Mashboxx and GNAB, and a deal to offer advertising-supported videos on mobile phones in the US through Rhythm NewMedia.
For further information on EMI, please visit: http://www.emigroup.com.
