For some reason, innovation in this niche is happening in UK, even though the market is much smaller, and almost a year behind U.S…(Or maybe precisely for that reason, more innovation is happening.)
Napster has tied up with News International, the UK publishing arm of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire, to distribute music through newspapers, though this is not the first time such a thing is happening. (The Guardian started offering downloads of Glastonbury music festival held in June, in association with EMI.)
Free downloads from the 750,000 tracks on Napster will be offered with The Sun, News International’s mass-market daily tabloid, following several months of talks between the two companies.
Netimperative: The promotion begins on Thursday with a £50,000 music related prize giveaway in the paper.
The tie-up could be extended to other titles such as The Times, Sunday Times and News of the World, or other parts of the News Corp group. It would be interesting to see if this deal is extended to U.S. or other parts of the world where News Corp operates.
First Take: In UK, this seems to be the natural progression of evolution of freebies among the newspapers…CDs and DVDs are already a huge part. You would be amazed by how much these newspapers offer for 50 pence to 1 pound…
But then, the economics associated with these freebies are horrible. Les Hinton, executive chairman of News International, said 9.5m extra newspapers had been sold in the first half of this year by using music and film promotions. For a Napster freebie CD, it could cost put far in excess of £1m ($1.8m), according to the company. What the newspapers hope is that the circulation gains would be enough to sell extra advertising on top of that (Keep in mind that most of the newspapers in UK are sold via newsstands, as opposed to say U.S.)
On the other hand, the music rights clearances and licensing are much easier for a smaller market like UK, with multiple national newspapers. It would be interested to see if Napster is paying News Int. for this or the other way round…
Then, a lot of newspaper sites in UK are already offering a ringtone store, and generating a small but tidy profit running these as co-branded, ASP deals.
Related:
– UK Newspapers To Get Into Digital Music Fray
– Realtones For 4.00 Each?
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