Local broadband Internet company GigaMedia Ltd (
The project will see the NASDAQ-listed GigaMedia spin off its existing "Juice" (就是娛樂) music site into a new EMI-Giga joint venture channel to be called GigaMusic.
EMI Music Asia, a division of EMI Recorded Music, will take a minority stake in the new com-pany, said Bryan Low, EMI Music Asia's head of new media.
Low declined to outline the size of the equity stake or whether EMI would make a cash injection into the company.
He said both GigaMedia and EMI would share revenue from the site, but the revenue model has yet to be worked out.
GigaMusic will provide access to streaming video and audio on a subscription basis, while downloads will be charged per item.
As part of the deal, GigaMusic will get priority access to artists from the EMI stable which includes EMI's Virgin label.
EMI will contribute its new media expertise while GigaMedia will provide a platform for EMI to promote artists and distribute content in video and audio format.
"The platform will be developed in different stages with access to artists' music and videos to be available within 12 months," said Matthew Allison, president and CEO of EMI Music Asia.
The first step will be hosting sites for EMI/Virgin's Chinese-language artists. While artists from around the region will be represented on the new site, the focus will primarily be on Taiwanese artists.
On hand for the launch of GigaMusic yesterday were EMI/Virgin's top-selling singers Elva Hsiao (蕭亞軒) and Phil Chang (張宇).
Chang was EMI Taiwan's number one artist last year with album sales of 300,000. Elva is one of Taiwan's most popular female popstars with her records published on the Virgin label.
A key issue for the success of online music sales is digital security. Taiwan has a notorious reputation for online piracy and Giga-Music will only succeed it can ensure security against illegal copying of songs and video clips.
Elva said that while she is an avid Internet user, she has never downloaded any songs from sites such as Napster.
"I think it's okay to get songs to sample and see what they're like, but it's not right to copy them onto CDs," she said.
Last month, 14 National Cheng Kung University students were arrested in Tainan for allegedly downloading and burning music CDs. While the GigaMusic channel will initially support Microsoft Media Player's digital rights management technology (DRM), Allison said they are open to other platforms if they are suitable.
"We are technology agnostic," he said. "We have also worked with [DRM provider] Liquid Audio and have done trials with [online music portal] Soundbuzz." Low said that while the GigaMusic deal allows priority access to EMI's artists, they are not willing to grant exclusivity to any company.
"The whole of the Internet is about non-exclusivity. We are not about building a walled-garden, we want to sell our music in as many ways as possible," he said.
EMI is currently in talks with other broadband and content providers in Taiwan.
GigaMedia is known to favor exclusive access deals with its joint-venture partners as a means to boost usage of its broadband ISP service and increase online subscription numbers.
Similarly, Low said that EMI will not limit itself to Microsoft's DRM technology and will consider others.
"Microsoft [Media Player] is slightly ahead because of market share, it has the advantage of controlling the operating system which Liquid Audio doesn't have," he said. "Nine times out of 10 it's not about the superior technology, but about having the most users," he said.
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