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MBritish entrepreneur Richard Branson's
Virgin Group on Monday became the latest company to throw
its hat into the online music ring by launching the Virgin
Digital service.
Virgin Digital, at http://www.virgindigital.com,
combines a 99-cent-per-song download store, a $7.99-per-month
subscription service, streaming radio and portable device
management tools.
Virgin joins an increasingly crowded market. It includes
services and download stores like Apple Computer's popular
iTunes Store, Microsoft's newly launched online store and
offerings from Real Networks Rhapsody and Roxio's Napster.
Yahoo this month also bolstered its position by spending
$160 million for Musicmatch.
"We don't see this as crowded," Zack Zalon, president
of Virgin Digital, said in an interview. "It's not saturated
at all and there is tremendous growth potential."
Zalon said Virgin was taking a long-term approach. "We
don't care about winning next week or next month. We plan
to be a significant player in five years."
Virgin Digital officials expect its brand name and retail
store following to help jump-start the service. Other Virgin
entities will serve to help get the word out.
For instance, Branson's new reality show The Billionaire:
Branson's Quest of the Best , debuting on News Corporation's
Fox Network in November, will help promote the service, executives
said.
Featuring more than one million tracks, the download store
provides licences for playing, burning to CDs and downloading
to about 50 portable music devices.
The Virgin Digital Music Club subscription service, for $7.99
per month, gives users unlimited access to more than 100,000
on-demand albums. Radio Free Virgin, an online radio service,
is also integrated.
Officials also touted an "Ask the Expert" feature
providing customer support. "It's like walking into a
retail store and asking a highly knowledgeable salesperson
for help," Zalon said.
Virgin Digital said it will also offer the service outside
of the US, but no dates have been announced.
David Card, analyst with Jupiter Research, which projects
the commercial online music market in the US to grow to about
$1.7 billion in 2009 from about $100 million in 2003, said
Virgin would get a bigger boost from its brand in Britain
than in the United States.
He said the market would still see new entrants.
"I don't think Virgin is too late or anybody's too late,"
he said. "There's a lot of noise out there and there
will be morne entrants before there are fewer."
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