MP3.COM HAS MORE IN STORE

Undaunted by its ongoing legal wrangling with the RIAA, music service provider MP3.com has unleashed the kind of Net music program currently favored by analysts—business-to-business—and taken a step into the long-debated subscription-service world.

The MSP Retail Music Service Program, the high-profile dot-com asserts, will give retail establishments a new level of control over in-store music. In addition to managing music throughout entire chains, retailers can use the service to coordinate specific promotions and advertising.

Using an MP3 player and devising playlists from a secure Web page, retailers will ostensibly be able to calibrate their music to meet a range of business objectives. In addition, MP3.com artists will be compensated for the play they receive in stores, and the MSP insists that said compensation will be more precise and potentially more lucrative than traditional royalty models.

While talk of subscription models has been constant during the evolution of the digital-music economy, few companies have stepped to the plate with a workable model. If MP3.com is able to profit from and compensate its artist base while generating revenue in a B-to-B framework, other music dot-coms are almost certain to follow.

"Giving retail businesses the ability to fully customize their in-store music programming and advertising is a huge win for the retail market," noted company chieftain michael robertson',390,400);">michael robertson',390,400);">Michael Robertson. "Plus, there's nothing like a little death-metal when you're shopping for Underoos."