Lycos Monday introduced Lycos Music, a powerful online music destination.
The new offering combines Lycos’ music-rich content, community, navigation and commerce offerings with the latest audio
technologies.
Lycos Music features searchable MP3 databases; music hosting and downloading services; audio player and features; online music communities and chat rooms; music purchasing capabilities; online radio; music news, and artists reviews.
“Lycos Music, is the latest addition to the Lycos Network and an extension of our multibrand strategy. By building and assembling a variety of unique products, we are able to meet the diverse needs of the eclectic Internet
audience,” said Ron Sege, executive vice president of Lycos (LCOS).
Users can search the Web using specific search tools to help them find what they’re looking for including: search by genre, artist, album title, and even “sounds like.” Music fans can also search for audio files via a co-branded version of Listen.com’s comprehensive directory of additional downloadable music, and can browse the directory’s nearly 600 music genre categories from the Lycos Music site.
Lycos Music’s playback technology features its own Sonique, which supports most audio formats including MP3, and decodes music files and formats to be played from the user’s desktop.
Lycos also offers a portal radio network with 35 channels of diverse music programming with high-quality sound technology for any bandwidth. The Network offers live programming, a variety of music genres and customization options for different tastes, where highly-ranked independent artists can be heard alongside famous artists without ever having a record contract.
Lycos Music further provides independent artists with a free and extensive MP3 hosting service.
Called the Listening Room, and created in concert with Fast Search &
Transfer (FAST), the new service enables aspiring bands to upload their music to the Web, convert it to MP3 format, and host and maintain the audio files, all for free.
Musicians can upload photos, bios, lyrics and tour information to the Listening Room for Lycos’ broad music fan base to access. The Listening Room makes it easy for all types of music fans to search and find new music by providing different categorical search options including: by artist, album title, genre, city or region, and even “sounds like.
“FAST is very excited to be part of the Lycos’ music initiative,” said David M. Burns, president and CEO of Fast Search & Transfer, Inc. “The Listening Room combines the power of FAST’s best-of-breed search and hosting technology with Lycos’ digital media expertise to create a powerful entry to the online music industry.”
Lycos Music users can purchase music via a link to barnesandnoble.com from
the home page.
