Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
- Like an ice salesman setting up shop in Anchorage, an online music service plans to start recruiting paying subscribers today on the leading outlet for free music on the Internet.
Dallas-based Streamwaves is the first music service backed by the major record companies to cozy up to Kazaa, an online file-sharing network that attracts at least 4 million users at any given moment.
In addition to running advertisements on Kazaa software, Streamwaves plans to use Altnet, a subsidiary of Woodland Hills-based Brilliant Digital Entertainment Inc., to deliver 30-second samples of the songs on its service to Kazaa users.
….And why should Kazaa users pay Streamwaves as much as $15 a month for music they could download free, albeit illegally? “At a low price point,” Tribble said, “they’re willing to pay for convenience.”
….Under Streamwaves’ deal with Altnet, Kazaa users who search for many major-label artists or songs will find a link to Streamwaves at the top of their list of results. Clicking on that link will launch Streamwaves’ software, providing samples of numerous songs by the artist and related performers from an online jukebox. [LA Times]
And the best of luck to you.
