EMI, Australian telco Launch Bundled Music Service
EMI Music Australia has teamed with national telco AAPT to create a groundbreaking music service.
The new AAPT “Entertainment Bundle” fuses unlimited broadband and home phone line rental with a music subscription, and is a first for the Australian market. EMI Music Australia’s digital retail platform The In Song powers the new offering, which launched today.
Consumers have two options to buy in. With a monthly price-tag starting at $99.95 Australian ($88.80), new customers can choose the “24/7 Unlimited Broadband” offer which promises unlimited ADSL2+ broadband (add $10 Australian for ADSL1), home phone line rental, unlimited streaming of all catalog on The In Song and $50 Australian ($44.40) worth of music downloads each month, all on a 24-month plan.
Existing AAPT broadband customers can add to their existing plan the music package – comprising unlimited music streaming and $50 Australian worth of monthly music downloads — for $17.99 Australian ($16).
The monthly download offering is roughly equal to 30 tracks, based on the $1.69 Australian ($1.50) average price of downloads available on The In Song.
EMI Australia’s online music venture, formerly known as MusicHead, carries upwards of 1 million titles, a catalog which includes more than 500,000 EMI works and content recently licensed from Warner Music and Sony Music. Other labels will come on board over time, EMI sources say.
AAPT is promoting the offering with a competition, the prize for which is a trip for two to see a concert anywhere in the world.
“When we launched our first unlimited product, we started considering how we, as an organization, could support the music industry’s plight and actively encourage our customers to consider artists’ royalties when they downloaded music,” comments AAPT chief executive Paul Broad in a statement. “It’s about giving others a fair go – and that’s what Australians are known for. Quite simply, it’s the right thing to do.”
EMI Music Australia chairman Mark Poston added, “This innovative partnership is in line with EMI’s strategy of making great music available to as many people as possible and focusing on the consumer experience.”
AAPT is the Australian arm of the Telecom New Zealand Group. The company has a 4% share of Australia’s telecommunications market.
AAPT’s parent admits there are no specific plans to launch a similar music service in New Zealand. “Telecom is continuously investigating emerging and innovative models that help customers access the content they want via broadband and mobile services,” says a spokesman for Telecom New Zealand, who adds “we have no new developments to talk about at present.”
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