e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

[Tinroad]

Uplister Offering Music to Go
By Ronna Abramson
Thursday July 19, 10:35 am Eastern Time
http://biz.yahoo.com/st/010719/28059.html

The music site Uplister is joining the growing number of digital-music companies planning to offer subscription services, but with an unusual twist on payments that at least one analyst has hailed as "very promising."

Unlike services that the major record labels are proposing to launch by the end of the summer, Uplister plans to offer two tiers of pricing and offer the option of making music available on your computer only, or making it downloadable, the company announced on Thursday.

Uplister plans to charge users a monthly fee - $10 - to download and listen to music only on their computers - a plan similar to those offered by label-affiliated MusicNet and Pressplay. That's like renting music, says Toni Schneider, CEO of Oakland, Calif.-based Uplister.

MusicNet and Pressplay would initially stop there, but Uplister would also give users the option of paying 99 cents per track for the right to permanently own a song, download it and burn it to a CD or record an MP3. Uplister plans to launch the service in beta form by the end of the summer and in commercial form by the end of the year.

Until now, Uplister has offered its users a forum to share playlists created by more than 50 celebrities such as Green Day and Nick Hornby, and by 60,000 other participants. But Uplister has lacked a way to actually deliver the music. The subscription service would enable users to download a complete playlist.

"I think it's very promising," said Aram Sinnreich, a senior analyst with Jupiter Media Metrix. Sinnreich says a two-tiered system like that planned by Uplister is the "only way to offer consumers portability and at the same time offer rights holders security."

Uplister announced Thursday that its initial launch partners include Matador, TVT Records, Overcore Records, Wax Trax Records, Alternative Tentacles, Knitting Factory/Shimmy Disc, K Records, Lookout, Roadrunner and Soleilmoon Recordings. Its service would also be available through leading MP3 player software Winamp in a distribution arrangement the company hopes to replicate with other sites. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"People want to know they can at some point be able to take certain music onto their portable devices and burn and what have you," said TVT Records CEO Steve Gottlieb. But what is most exciting, Gottlieb says, is that Uplister aims to enhance the music experience without cutting into traditional sales. "This is what only the Internet can give us and it represents a unique and new way for people to share their passion for music."

Uplister's music offerings are weighed heavily toward independent labels, so the company will be taking on services offered by EMusic.com and MP3.com, both of which were acquired recently by Universal Music. One point in Uplister's favor, says Schneider, is that some independents are feeling uncomfortable of doing business with major labels.

EMusic.com CEO Gene Hoffman confirmed that he has heard two or three independents labels are less interested in doing business with Universal, but says most top-tier independents are more comfortable that EMusic will last and that it is "something very real." He argues that consumers prefer a flat-rate payment rather than watching charges rack up with each download.

"I think it's important to experiment with both," Schneider counters. "Clearly nobody has the answer."