EMI are launching a new website for its 'Now That's What I Call Music' compilation strand. The website, at http://nowmusic.com, will offer music fans video clips, track downloads, podcasts and over-the-air downloads, using the most recent edition of the pop compilation as its main content driver.
The website is primarily a promotional tool for EMI, promoting other compilations released by the major's TV division, and offering pay-per-track downloads from a healthy portion of the EMI catalogue. Whether the other labels who license their music to the Now compilations will approve of the major using the pop brand to sell on their other music remains to be seen.
Likewise the success of the site, although the Now brand is seemingly as strong as ever, despite the assumption illegal downloading will hit compilation sales hardest. Now releases continue to sell well in both the US and UK, with the most recent UK edition scoring the highest ever first-week sale in the series' history - 68,000 copies.