The HMV Group plc, one of the UK's leading retailers of music, have announced a partnership with Microsoft which will allow them to offer a music download service. They will be investing around £10 million to launch the service, so this is clearly a serious move into the traditionally Apple dominated market place.
The HMV service will offer a customised jukebox, and music will naturally be in the Windows Media audio format. There is no talk on pricing as yet. Alan Giles, HMV Group Chief Executive, had the following to say about the announcement:
We have a unique opportunity to leverage the HMV brand, customer base and our store network to establish a strong position in the newly emerging market for paid-for music downloads. HMV Group is delighted to be working with Microsoft to create the software for this exciting development.
It's going to be tough for HMV to make inroads into the online music market, which already has a lot of well established players. Over 200 million tunes have been downloaded from Apple's iTunes store, which is the current heavy weight in this arena. HMV will have to offer something better than Apple, such as cheaper tracks, in order to interest punters. Watch out for more on this story in the second half of 2005, which is when HMV are expected to launch their service.
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