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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

MUSIC—Hollywood Records Allows Free Downloads of Music

After the Napster controversy over offering free music over the Internet, who would ever figure a major record label to put an artist’s music on line for anyone to download? Hollywood Records, that’s who. The Burbank-based unit of the Walt Disney Co. doesn’t just have a song on the Internet for potential CD buyers to sample, throughout the month of May it has had an entire new album on line. “They can go for it,” said Ken Bunt, Hollywood’s vice president of new media. “We need people to hear the record, and so far they’re listening.” Bunt says what may be the first album ever to be aired on line in its entirety will pay off in sales and added exposure for Diffuser, a pop rock band now on tour. Its new album, “Injury Loves Melody,” is on the label’s Web site, allowing Web surfers to sample the tracks and download them free of charge. All 11 of the album’s songs are available in three formats MP3, Windows Media and Liquid Audio none of which will time out, or expire after several days as many song samples available on the Internet do. “We wanted to stand apart from the pack and offer a free album of a great new band,” said Bunt. The move to allow fans to download comes as record companies are still relishing a court victory over Napster Inc., which allows its users to exchange MP3 music files through its Web site. MP3 files contain sound, rather than text, and can be opened by an MP3 player, one of several software programs that can play music. Last year, several top labels, including Sony Music, Universal Music, and Bertelsmann AG filed suit against Napster seeking a halt to its use of copyrighted music. Earlier this year a judge ruled Napster violated the law by allowing its users access to copyrighted music. Copyright laws ban the bartering, borrowing or copying of music without the copyright owner’s consent. The case effectively barred Napster from offering copyrighted songs through the site. The whole matter has artists taking sides, sometimes in complete opposition. Most believe that, since they don’t make any royalties on these downloads, it’s theft. A few believe it is in their best interest to allow downloading because it gets them the recognition they crave. Just last September, the punk rock band The Offspring filed a lawsuit against its record label, Columbia Records, trying to force it to allow fans to download a new album over the Internet for a month. The label reminded the rockers that their contract gives Columbia exclusive distribution rights to its albums and the case was dropped. The band, however, did win the right to put one of its singles from the album, “Original Prankster,” on the Internet as a month-long promotion. Columbia, which is a party to record companies’ lawsuit against Napster over its use of copyrighted music, said through a spokesman that its artists are barred from distributing music over the Internet. Officials at Hollywood Records, which is not involved in the Napster suit, say the Web portal should be banned from using copyrighted music and that any decision to distribute music over the Internet should be made by record companies. Bunt, the mastermind behind the download plan at Hollywood Records, said the sound quality of the band’s CD is far superior to any MP3 or similar online digital format. So, although listeners can get the entire album free, he believes it will really just whet their appetites for the real thing. “We certainly don’t have the belief that music on the Internet should be free, especially if it’s illegally done. But this is a way to expose the band,” Bunt said. Since the album was released in January, sales have been “good,” said Bunt, for a band without a music video and little radio airplay. He declined to give specific sales figures but, according to SoundScan Inc., a company that tracks record sales, “Injury Loves Melody” has sold about 13,000 copies in the U.S. The album so far has not cracked the Billboard top 200 list of albums. As of last Friday, the Web site has had about 85,000 downloads of individual tracks, Bunt said, who had projected about 120,000 downloads by the time the promotion ends May 31. Fans accessing Hollywood Records’ Web site for the downloads also find a link that allows them to buy a copy of Diffuser’s new CD. If they buy on line, they’ll get a free Diffuser T-shirt with the purchase. Bunt said the company had been planning a download offer for the last year, but was waiting for the right artists to come along. “We wanted a compelling band, one that, even though we offered the album free, people would still want to buy their album,” Bunt said. Sharrin Summers, a spokeswoman for Hollywood Records, said Diffuser hopes to build on its growing fan base through the free downloads. “We want to get the fans for the next album and the album after that. It’s a process to grow the band,” she said. Not everybody in the industry is convinced the strategy will work. “Labels try to create a lot of new ways to break (out) a band and this is one of those ideas. If it works, they’re geniuses, and if it doesn’t, they’ll let them know it,” said Eileen Fitzpatrick, digital entertainment editor for Billboard Magazine, who said it may be the first time a major label has put an entire album on line. “I guess because it’s the band’s first album that they’re doing this. I don’t think you’d see this if it were an established act.” Fitzpatrick said the potential for creating an unwanted market for bootleg albums as a result of the free downloads is one possibility that the band faces, another is a possible dearth of sales because fans are satisfied with what they download for free. Peter Malkin, Diffuser’s manager, says the benefits of putting the album on line far outweigh its liabilities. “This is really a matter of the exposure of the band. The competition for radio airplay is really great and this is one way to get the band out there,” he said.

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