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Universal, BMG in accord?
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April 7, 1999: 1:22 a.m. ET
Joint venture will give record companies array of music Web sites
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Universal Music and BMG, the nation's two largest music companies, are expected Wednesday to announce a joint venture to sell their products over the Internet, the New York Times reported.
The new venture will be centered on a new Web site called getmusic.com, an online store that will feature music not only from the two companies, but also from other major labels and independent record companies as well, the newspaper said, citing industry executives.
BMG already has set up a series of sites to promote different categories of music, the report said. Those include Peeps.com, a rhythm-and-blues site; Bugjuice.com, for alternative bands; and Twangthis.com, for country music. Universal acts will be added to these and other sites, the report said.
Unlike getmusic.com, the individual genre sites will feature only the music of BMG, a unit of the German media giant Bertelsmann (FBTG), and Universal, an arm of Canadian media-and-spirits conglomerate Seagram (VO).
BMG has labels such as Arista, Elektra Nonesuch and BMG Classical, and artists including Whitney Houston, Puff Daddy and Sarah McLachlan.
Universal's lineup include labels such as MCA, Geffen, Def Jam, Mercury, Motown and A&M, and artists including Elton John, Herbie Hancock and U2.
Industry executives expect the music companies to have a competitive advantage in the emerging online music field, because the companies have closer access to the performers than do the existing competitors, which include online retailers such as CDNow and Amazon.com (AMZN), the report said.
The new sites are not expected to offer music downloads to customers, at least not initially, but they may add such features in the future as industry standards evolve, the report said.
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