By Keith Regan E-Commerce Times
04/05/01 10:14 AM PT
The Duet deal links Yahoo! with Vivendi Universal, the company that
has come up most often in rumors that Yahoo! would be acquired by another media firm.
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Amid a slew of new partnerships and product
announcements in the digital music field,
Yahoo!
(Nasdaq: YHOO) said Thursday it has formed an alliance
with Duet, a subscription-based music service
being developed by two of the world's largest record labels.
Yahoo said it will initially market Duet as a streaming-music
channel and later offer digital downloads to the millions
of Web surfers who use the Internet portal.
"We are committed to providing our active and
robust consumer base with fast, easy and legal
access to the music of their choice," said
Yahoo! president and chief operating officer
Jeff Mallett. "This alliance represents a step
forward in our ongoing efforts to make
Yahoo! the Web's premier entertainment destination."
Duet, which will be based in New York City,
is scheduled to launch this summer.
Legal Alternative
Powerhouse record labels Universal Music Group
and Sony Music Entertainment announced last
year they would develop Duet as a legal, paid
alternative to the wildly popular but
legally troubled Napster music file-swapping service.
In an interesting twist, the Duet deal links Yahoo!
with Vivendi Universal (NYSE:V). Vivendi's
name has come up most often in rumors that
Yahoo! would be acquired by another
media firm to create a second AOL/Time Warner.
Vivendi's chief executive
officer Jean-Marie Messier said that the deal brings the music
company "closer to achieving one of
our fundamental goals -- providing consumers
with access to all music, all the time."
Messier added: "The number of consumers
seeking music online is large and growing
and we want consumers to have legitimate
access to all their favorite artists and songs."
Go Yahoo!
Yahoo has been actively striking partnerships
on several fronts recently as it attempts to
reverse a trend of sliding profits.
For instance, earlier this week, Yahoo! announced a deal
with software giant SAP (NYSE: SAP) to create corporate portals.
As for the fledgling Duet,
the deal means instant access to millions of
potential customers. The two labels together
say they can provide access to nearly half of
all the world's music through the service.
"Yahoo's strong brand recognition and
tremendous consumer reach will greatly
enhance the success of Duet," said Howard Stringer, Sony Corp.
of America chairman and chief executive officer.
RealNetworks unveiled a partnership with
three other record labels this week to create
MusicNet. In a separate deal, MTV said Wednesday
that its interactive unit's Web sites would have
10,000 songs available for download within weeks.
And Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) MSN launched a new
version of its own streaming music product this week.
Once again the subject of congressional hearings,
Napster itself is trying to settle lawsuits by
restricting downloads of copyrighted music and
eventually becoming a paid service. The company
is seeking federal legislation that will make music licenses
for online music from the record label
copyright holders compulsory, as is the case
with radio broadcasts.
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