Music buffet
Hot on the heels of HP announcing it was going to preinstall a trial version of the MusicStation ‘all you can eat' (AYCE) music subscription service on many of its PCs in Europe, UK mobile phone giant Vodafone has announced 450,000 customers have signed up to its AYCE music service - the biggest such customer base in Europe.
Vodafone has its own, iTunes-style, music store, but also offers its own AYCE service as well as the MusicStation one, run by UK company Omnifone, that is being used by HP. It signed DRM-free deals with the big four record companies last year to enable these services.
"We expect to see continued growth in our music service subscriptions driven by the increase in smartphone use," said Lee Epting, director of content at Vodafone.
The four big music companies seem to be queuing up to voice their approval for AYCE services, having effectively fought tooth-and-nail to maintain their old revenue models. This seems to signify an admission by the music industry that it is finally facing the realities of the Internet age.
"Universal Music believes strongly in the future of music subscription services," said Francis Keeling of Universal. "Vodafone's users across the region are demonstrating that a growing number of consumers want innovative music offers that allow them to easily listen to their favourite songs by conveniently combining services and devices," said Michael Paull of Sony Music Entertainment.
Eric Daugan of Warner said: "These encouraging figures demonstrate the opportunities created when mobile companies and music labels are aligned in offering easy, instant access to content, in ways that cater for a variety of fan behaviour." While Ian Whitfield at EMI concluded: "We are very pleased with the results Vodafone have delivered."
