AOL Time Warner Inc's America Online, the world's biggest Internet service, will begin selling subscriptions to a new Internet music service today in an attempt to boost sales and retain its 27 million US customers.
Subscribers to MusicNet on AOL will be asked to pay as much as US$17.95 a month for access to 250,000 songs by performers from all five of the world's biggest music companies. The service, like its year-old rival Pressplay, seeks to draw music fans away from free song-swapping sites such as Kazaa.
America Online faces the challenge of reviving revenue growth by attracting users to its faster broadband Internet connections, which provide higher quality sound and video, while retaining the dial-up customers upon which the company built its business.
"This product both adds value to the dial-up connection and provides people an incentive to upgrade to AOL Broadband," Kevin Conroy, senior vice president of AOL Entertainment, said in an interview. "It also appeals to people who might never have been an AOL member."
America Online postponed MusicNet's debut on its service for a year because of technical problems and unfavorable reviews of its original design.
America Online is trying to compete against Microsoft Corp's MSN and other competitors for broadband Internet customers by offering exclusive content and other services.
It's also battling lower advertising sales and profit while lower-cost Internet services such as United Online Inc gain customers.
America Online lost 170,000 US customers in the fourth quarter, the company's first quarterly subscriber decline.
"They probably realize they won't be the No. 1 Internet service provider in the future," said Lee Black, an analyst at Jupiter Research. "What they are doing here is not only building out their online music strategy but trying to get new subscribers to come to AOL."
Shares of AOL Time Warner rose US$0.37 on Tuesday to US$10.43 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has fallen 56 percent in the past year.
Executives at America Online Inc and Time Warner Inc promised investors two years ago that a combined company could use online strength to bolster entertainment businesses such as music.
America Online's US$124 billion purchase of Time Warner was the biggest acquisition ever.
The rollout of AOL Time Warner's new online music product stalled while the music industry has struggled to halt illegal music trading on free sites such as Kazaa, Morpheus and the now-defunct Napster.
America Online said it will offer members a 30-day free trial to MusicNet at AOL. Afterward, consumers can choose from three pricing plans -- US$3.95 a month for 20 streams, or song plays, and 20 downloads; US$8.95 a month for unlimited streaming and downloading; or US$17.95 a month for unlimited streaming and downloading plus the ability to copy 10 songs onto a CD.
America Online said it expects most customers to choose the US$8.95 package. Later this year, the service will offer music available for copying on a song-by-song basis for about US$0.99.
Music companies haven't perfected technology that can prevent illegal copying while permitting users to transfer downloaded songs between devices such as personal computers and portable stereos.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique