It is understood online giant Amazon has been holding talks with record label executives about a potential online music offering that would include options such as song-by-song downloads as well as a monthly subscription service.
According to a report in this morning’s The Wall Street Journal, the internet retailer has also discussed tapping MusicNet, a New York distributor of digital music to support the service.
In recent months Dublin’s Digital Hub has been revealed as the location for Amazon’s European systems and network operations centre.
Any digital venture would face considerable hurdles, not least the presence of several established store such as iTunes, Napster and Reals’ Rhapsody. However Amazon has little choice as CD sales decline relative to the growth of downloads.
Amazon also hopes by offering digital content it will be able to continue to attract music buyers to the other areas of its website.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was quoted as saying he wants to increase the digital content offerings on the site.
By John Kennedy
