eBay Explores Downloadable Music

eBay merchants could soon be following in the heels of Apple’s iTunes Music Store and other digital music sellers, following the e-commerce
marketplace’s announcement this week that it plans to test ways for users to
buy and sell downloadable products.

This week, the company unveiled a new Digital Downloads product
subcategory within its Music product category, as part of a 180-day pilot
program aimed at gauging whether such an offering could be feasible over the
long term.

Unlike services like iTunes, eBay will handle only the online sales
portion of the buying process. According to the company, sellers are
required to oversee the secure downloading and digital rights management for
the music they sell.

Consequently, during the checkout process after an auction or sale, the
buyer is likely to be redirected to a seller’s own branded and secure site
to complete the transaction and receive their purchased music.

While no music is currently being offered in the new Digital Downloads
subcategory, eBay said the pilot program has enlisted sellers that have
already been vetted for certain criteria, such as copyright protections.

“They are the rights owner[s] or have contractual permission from the
rights owner to resell the listed media,” eBay said on its site.

It is not known how many sellers will be participating in the pilot
program. Throughout the day today, a handful of auctions have appeared
offering “Buy It Now” access to music, which would then be e-mailed to
winners or made available through a secret URL. Those listings have since been pulled by press time, and no digital music
is currently available in the category.

eBay said it ultimately could expand the category beyond its pre-approved
roster of sellers, but only to other merchants who also meet standards of
ensuring copyright protections, service level agreements, safety, and other
criteria.

The move represents a tightly controlled effort by eBay to extend its
marketplace to what’s emerging as a potentially lucrative category of online
selling — digital music. Apple’s iTunes store earlier this week announced
that it has sold more than 100 million music tracks since the store’s debut in
late April, 2003.

For its part, eBay has not figured prominently in sales of digital goods.
To date, the site has been strict about how it handles digital goods sales,
and even after launching the pilot program, eBay’s policies governing the
products remain fairly stringent.

According to notices posted on its site, eBay prohibits sellers from
listing items such as a copy of an application downloadable from a seller’s
Web site; music or video delivered through a peer-to-peer file-sharing community or network; a copy of a downloadable electronic book; a hidden URL where a high bidder can download freeware or shareware software.

eBay also said it reserves the right to terminate product listings that
violate its policy on downloadable media.

Christopher Saunders is managing editor of eCommerce-Guide.com.

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