EMI-tunes Australia

Major record label, EMI, has just launched its own site to sell music digitally, in Australia. The site is called Musichead MP3 and has a half million tracks available for paid download.

In the words of EMI’s Australian Chairman:

“Our goal is always to offer consumers the best possible digital music experience – in all senses of the word. EMI was the first of the majors to provide DRM-free downloads and I see this as a further extension of our commitment to making the music from our extraordinary artists readily available (and legally) to Australian consumers whenever and wherever they want it.”

I wonder if this is a test at some level. Australia is a relatively small market. Maybe if EMI is able to make money with iTunes and others in the market, it will be a strategy they can employ in other countries. The biggest obstacle that they will have is the fact that they only have EMI music while other sites such as iTunes contain all of the major label’s music. The USA market has shown that even with AmazonMP3 offering cheaper prices and a full catalog, people still flock to iTunes.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com