EMI is to distribute selected artists through DJDownload.com, the specialist music site. The catalogue will include all of dance label Positiva, the full Chemical Brothers back catalogue and artists such as Radiohead and Massive Attack. Tracks will be in MP3 format with preview samples, and won't include any digital rights management (DRM) so they can be used on multiple players.
Chemical Brothers photo by drierp on Flickr. Some rights reserved.
EMI wants to "increase its presence in niche markets", which it needs to do to combat piracy. This might be a drop in the ocean but if labels make hundreds of these kind of specialist deals, the hope is that demand for illegal downloads will be reduced.
The problem, though, is that many pirated sites are free services, more comprehensive catalogues or offer rare tracks, and the range of legal downloads hasn't caught up yet. See the closure of subscription downloads service OiNK yesterday.
Source: Release
Technorati Tags: DJDownload, EMI
