Tiscali and Peter Gabriel to<BR>launch music download service

LONDON - European ISP Tiscali and musician Peter Gabriel are set to launch Europe's first online music subscription service, Tiscali Music Shop.

The service is to be hosted by Tiscali and uses a platform created by Gabriel's music distribution company, OD2.



For a subscription of £5 a month, users can download 25 tracks, which will be automatically deleted after 30 days. Alternatively, users can pay £9.99 a month and download 60. An option for those unsure of what to select is to download a ten-track compilation for £1.90 per month.



The service is to be launched on December 18, as banned music service Napster continues its court battle with US record companies. It is believed that Napster, which allowed users to download copyrighted music for free, will be forced to charge $5 (£3.53) per month for its service.



Subscribers to the Tiscali Music Shop will be unable to copy the temporary material or e-mail it to friends and will have to pay between 99p and £2 per track for a permanent copy. The site will also include biographies on bands, artwork from the covers, interviews and video footage.



Gabriel argues that a temporary lending service was the way forward for music distribution. "How many times do you think an album gets played on average? I thought it would be three to five times but the average is actually 1.3. Most people have albums in their record collection that they have only played once or never at all. It is only a few that they play all the time. This is the way we consume music," he said.



Tiscali chairman, Renato Soru, said: "In my opinion it's much cheaper and a better option because you don't have to buy the entire album -- just the tracks you like. In ten years' time the distribution of music will be more like this than the way we distribute today."



Gabriel said: "We want to try and create a system and environment for filtering music without ripping off the record companies. Napster was clearly very successful but illegal and we need to give people a legal service that they are prepared to pay for."



The service has signed deals with EMI and BMG and predicts that between 8,000 to 10,000 new tracks will go online each month. Tiscali, Europe's second largest ISP, has 7.5m subscribers and expects to attract over 300,000 users to the music service in its first year.



Gabriel said: "I hope it is something that democratises the music business. I would want to be exposed to new music that I haven't had the chance to explore, email recommendations to friends and watch material as it evolves and changes, from demo to recording."





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Sylvia Westall, recommends

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