The company is in talks with other major record companies to expand the service with more music. Lala will offer free online song play without advertising, hoping to make up for licensing costs of playing the music online with sales of songs. "We believe over the next two years we might lose $40 million," founder Bill Nguyen said in an interview with Reuters.
He added: "We expect up to 70 percent of people will be freeloaders just listening to the music but around 30 percent will be buying music." With CD sales dropping 20% in the first quarter of 2007 and digital downloads unable to make up for it, the music industry is willing to experiment with new models and new ideas.
The world's third largest record company, EMI Group, started selling DRM-free music downloads through Apple's iTunes recently, a positive move for digital music.
Source:
Reuters
Written by: James Delahunty @ 6 Jun 2007 3:45