LOS ANGELES (ap) — A second online music service backed by major record labels plans to launch Wednesday, allowing users to listen to and store tracks from a broad catalogue of music.
Pressplay, a joint venture of Sony Music Entertainment and Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, said Tuesday its subscription-based Internet music service will be limited to just a few thousand users until a full rollout occurs in the New Year.
Pressplay will offer a free 14-day trial and four pricing plans ranging from $9.95 to $24.95 a month. The basic plan allows customers to listen to 300 streamed tracks and download 30 tracks. The top plan includes 1,000 streams, 100 downloads and the ability to “burn” 20 tracks onto a recordable CD.
Tracks downloaded onto computer hard drives will only work as long as the user remains a Pressplay subscriber. But tracks burned onto CDs will be fully portable, the company said.
The venture uses technology pioneered by MP3.com, which was bought by Universal earlier this year. It will be available through several sites, including Microsoft Corp.’s MSN Music, Yahoo! and Roxio.
A similar service called MusicNet was launched last week by RealNetworks Inc., AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann and EMI Group. Users of the pay-for-play service are able to listen to songs streamed over the Internet or downloaded to a computer, but they aren’t allowed to burn the music onto compact discs.
The original online music-sharing giant, Napster, was shut down by a federal judge in July and has been trying to develop a subscription-based service.
