SONY ELECTRONICS, MUSICMATCH CONSUMMATE BURNING DESIRE
This announcement comes just two days after EMI announced it had bought a minority stake in techco Roxio, a company that, among other things, makes CD burning software (hitsdailydouble.com, 6/5). That deal was the first such deal between a major label and a company involved in the controversial practice of CD burning. Roxio has also pacted with RealNetworks.
Beginning this month, MusicMatch Jukebox will ship with seven lines of internal and external Sony-branded CD-recordable and CD-rewritable drives worldwide. MusicMatch Jukebox will also ship with 12 additional lines of Sony-branded CD-R/RW drives by the end of 2001.
The deal is expected to boost software revenues for privately held MusicMatch, which expects to be profitable by year's end and to double its 2000 revenues of $10 million to $20 million in 2001.
"With the addition of Sony to our list of distribution partners, MusicMatch will now ship with over 60 percent of CD-recordable drives worldwide by year's end," said spokesman Gary Brotman "Turner Overdrive," noting there are many cases where both MusicMatch software and Roxio software are offered on the same device.
"This is a step in keeping Sony wired to the digital age. This is enabling all of the Sony products to easily let users burn CDs and work with digital files," said industry analyst P.J. "& the Bear" McNealy.
It is estimated that up to 5 billion blank CDs will have been shipped in the year in support of an estimated installed base of 100 million CD recorders in personal computers.
