Real Gets Rolling Stones; Best Buy Deal

The Rolling Stones, one of only a handful of big-name music acts absent
from the legal digital music services, has put the majority of its songs
online as part of a deal between EMI Music and RealNetworks .

RealNetworks, which just closed a $36 million
acquisition
of Listen.com, gets a two-week exclusive window to hawk
Rolling Stones tracks on the Rhapsody music subscription service.

The Seattle-based RealNetworks the Rolling Stones’ EMI Music/Virgin
Records recordings would be available for streaming and for purchase as
individual tracks on Rhapsody through the end of August. Initially, the
deal puts 18 classic Stones albums up for download — ranging from Sticky
Fingers and Exile on Main Street to Bridges to Babylon and Steel Wheels —
and hundreds of individual tracks released by the band since 1971.

The Stones tracks is expected to be integrated into Rhapsody add-on
features which include custom Web radio stations, pre-programmed stations
and editorial content.

After the exclusive two-week window ends in early September, The Rolling
Stones’ EMI/Virgin catalog will be made available to other legal online
music sites through EMI’s Digital Distribution programs, the company
said.

Other major acts that have not yet joined the Internet party include the
Beatles, Garth Brooks, Beastie Boys, Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead.

The availability of tracks from the Stones could not have come at a
better time for the legal digital music business, which has struggled to
catch on despite an all-out legal offensive by the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) against the rogue file-sharing networks and
online music swappers.

The delay in making the Rolling Stones music available online had nothing
to do with the band’s objection to the Internet, an EMI Music spokesman
explained. He said the delay stemmed mostly from the fact that a lot of the
group’s music was recorded more than 30 years ago, long before the Internet
became a distribution option.

Stones front man Mick Jagger has long been a big supporter of the
Internet, having bankrolled the Jagged Internetworks video streaming
service. In the late 1990s, Jagger’s Jagged Internetworks was a pioneer of
live cricket broadcasts via the Internet.

Separately, RealNetworks inked a deal with online/offline retailer Best
Buy to promote the Rhapsody service through interactive
kiosks in more than 560 retail stores nationwide.

The Best Buy deal gives RealNetworks a major presence at physical
locations to sell the $9.95 per month Rhapsody service.

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

News Around the Web