AOL sells it's soul (and rap, and rock)

AOL Time Warner has begun selling songs encoded in the unprotected MP3 format as a way to promote unreleased tracks from some of its most popular artists.

Roll up, roll up - get your unprotected, copyable music here folks (at a price).

America Online, Warner Music Group's corporate cousin, last week began offering 99 cent downloads of music from artists such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alanis Morissette, Missy Elliott, Jewel and Brandy. In all, AOL plans to offer 15 songs at that price.

The promotion marks the first time Warner Music has teamed with AOL Music to offer songs in the unprotected MP3 format. The major record labels have routinely dismissed MP3 because of its ability to be used, copied and distributed onto many different mediums without any copy protection. Nevertheless, consumers have turned the format into a default standard for music files because of its universal ability to be downloaded onto digital devices or burned onto CDs.

"We've been experimenting with the 99 cent download for a while, and over time we continue to refine our offerings in an effort to see how consumers will react to different models and promotions," Warner Music spokesman Will Tanous said.

Warner Music's Tanous said the promotion is one test of whether the label can use AOL and MP3 technology to generate hype for a new album. Since the files being sold online are unreleased tracks, the MP3s will not cut into CD sales, he said. Rather, they will give listeners the flavor of new albums.

"Since these tracks are being made available in conjunction with the release of the artists' latest albums, we're hopeful that the downloads will help generate even more interest in the current releases," Tanous said. We can expect to see many more such tie in's between different units of the AOL-Time Warner-ICQ-etc etc multimedia giant.

News source: c|net