Virgin is getting ready to launch its digital music platform in the UK, with the official launch date confirmed as this Friday, 2 Sep. The new service has a MusicNet back end, while the front end has been created by London based design firm Start Creative. Virgin hope to take on not only high street rival HMV with their download platform, but also established digital music companies iTunes and Napster. To that end they will operate both those two competitors' business models, offering both a pay-per-download and a subscription based service. Virgin will also be hoping that their musical heritage, both as a formerly independent record label and as a high street music store, will help them capture a share of the mainstream market yet to discover downloading. However, the MusicNet system they will operate is not compatible with Apple's iPod, meaning they, like most of the other digital music players, may struggle to truly take on iTunes, the only supplier of music to the most popular of digital music players.
Aug 30, 2005
•
1 min read
Virgin prep for UK download launch
Virgin will launch its UK digital music platform on 2 September, offering pay-per-download and subscription options built on MusicNet, though it will not work with the iPod.