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Said
Mr Kyong Yu, Head of StarHub Interactive, “;Play offers
music enthusiasts a unique hear-it-first-here opportunity to
conveniently sample the latest albums, songs and music videos. Now,
with this collaboration with EMI, users can legally download music
content and customise their own album collections on CD-R and
portable players. This is the first step towards providing StarHub
customers with significant value-added music content and services
when they hub with us.”
Mr
Hans Ebert, Executive Director, EMI Music South East Asia said,
“These are truly exciting times for the recording industry as we
start to understand and embrace all the intricacies and
opportunities of new media technology - technology that is
constantly evolving. This latest development is an extremely
positive one that will take EMI in this region into an entirely new
way of marketing and distributing our product. And as with anything
and everything we do, the key thing is that we have people working
for us who understand how this technology works and also understand
the wants and needs of today's consumers.”
The
launch of this online downloading initiative is very welcome in
Singapore. Said Ms Liew Woon Yin, Director-General, Intellectual
Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), “This is a very exciting
initiative that signals great progress for the music industry in
Singapore. Original works by artistes deserve to be valued,
respected and protected and IPOS supports any effort put in place to
encourage our consumers to respect intellectual properties. Given
this new initiative, consumers will now have legitimate alternative
to enjoy the music they love. I urge more consumers to leverage on
this new initiative, to ‘say No to Piracy and live for Real’.”
The
online catalogue will include music from the vast majority of
EMI’s current artistes including Air, Richard Ashcroft, Atomic
Kitten, Blue, Blur, Coldplay, Elva Hsiao, B.A.D., Penny Tai, The
Dandy Warhols, Daft Punk, Dirty Vegas, Ben Harper, Janet Jackson,
Joss Stone, Norah Jones, Lenny Kravitz, Massive Attack, Kylie
Minogue, N.E.R.D., Placebo, The Vines, Stacie Orrico, Robbie
Williams, and local acts like Ayden, Wendi Koh, Haikel &
Claressa Monteiro.
Back
catalogue will feature artistes such as The Rolling Stones, The
Beach Boys, Blondie, David Bowie, Nat King Cole, Deep Purple, Duran
Duran, Dean Martin, Pink Floyd, Cliff Richard, Frank Sinatra, George
Lam, Roman Tam and Frances Yip, as well as classical recordings by
artistes including Placido Domingo, Kiri Te Kanawa, Vanessa-Mae, and
Nigel Kennedy. There will also be thousands of recordings in
other genres including jazz and country.
More
excitingly, EMI’s rich catalogue of local albums that are no
longer in production today will also be made available for sale
online – e.g. P. Ramlee, Anita Sarawak, Rita Chao, Western Union
Band, The Quests, and more.
“We
are pleased to be able to finally offer consumers in Singapore yet
another channel for them to buy their music from. EMI has been
spending the last year preparing for this launch in Southeast Asia,
following successful launches in the US and Europe. Everyday we
are adding more and more tracks and albums so as to be able to offer
a sizeable catalogue that will one day match our physical catalogue. From
pop to classical, from jazz to local repertoire, we want to be able
to meet the demands of the Singapore consumer,” explained Ms
Valerie Lim, Managing Director, EMI Music Singapore.
Launched
in March 2003, the ;Play music portal provides a musical
gateway to international music artistes from Hong Kong, Taiwan and
the United States. The portal offers fully streamed albums,
pre-released singles, music videos and now music downloads. Users
can also access exclusive interviews, news articles and fun online
activities such as polling, discussion forum, e-greeting cards,
wallpaper downloads and more.
The
;Play music download service is powered by
Netroasia, which provides the Digital Rights Management platform for
the secure delivery of the music downloads portal. Netroasia
will also provide technical and content management services for
StarHub's digital music initiative.
To
coincide with the launch of the music downloads service, StarHub
will launch a ‘Top Downloader’ promotion, where winners stand to
win cash and MP3 players every month. For more information, please
go to www.starhub.com/play.
*
Best Interface Design, International Business Awards 2003
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End -
About
EMI Recorded Music
EMI
has consistently been one of the most progressive music companies in
the online sphere. In the last four years EMI has signed over 60
license agreements with digital music companies all over the world
covering a whole host of different business models and concepts and
was the first record company to issue licenses to both MusicNet and
Pressplay, as well as independent music subscription services. In
November 2002, EMI announced the launch of a new US digital download
programme in conjunction with nine online music distributors, while
Europe came on board from April 2003 with more than 20 online
retailers.
About
StarHub
StarHub
is a Singapore-based info-communications company providing a full
range of information, communications and entertainment services over
fixed, mobile and Internet platforms. It operates its own
nation-wide broadband network that delivers multi-channel cable TV,
data, voice and Internet access. StarHub will also offer Digital
Cable Services in 2004. On the cellular front, StarHub also operates
its own GSM/GPRS network and will have its 3G network ready by end
2004. Driven by a passion for listening and providing what customers
want, StarHub endeavours to bring affordable and premium quality
services with innovative and useful features to all its customers.
StarHub
raises the level of competition in Singapore, challenging others as
well as challenging itself, to constantly introduce new world-class
services at competitive prices. This unwavering commitment will
further strengthen Singapore's position as a leading
info-communication hub in the region. Visit StarHub at www.starhub.com
for your communication needs.
About
Netroasia
Netroasia
is an info-comm technology company that focuses on digital media
services and enterprise solution development. Its core digital media
services include broadband and streaming solution for the Internet
and mobile platform, aggregation and creation of digital content for various
IP delivery platforms, web and mobile consultancy and
development. Its subsidiary, Digital Connect Pte Ltd, provides the R&D services for
continuous enhancement to secure digital platforms.
Source:
StarHub Press Release 18 Mar 2004
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Previous FrontPage Edition 18 Apr 2004
