Digital Media Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corp., will launch a music distribution service through a digital communication satellite broadcaster starting May 12, company officials said Thursday.
DME will open the new channel called MusicLink on Sky Perfect TV and distribute music data using the broadcaster's interactive system. The new service will enable subscribers of Sky Perfect TV to download music with a special tuner and record music on equipment such as mini discs.
The music distribution service is the first in the country to utilize interactive CS broadcasting, the officials said. The company plans to limit the contents distributed under the new service to indie music that is not sold through existing distribution channels, the officials said.
However, the firm plans to expand the new service to other genres if it obtains consents from copyright holders. The company is currently negotiating with the parties concerned, they said. Although the firm is providing the music distribution service for free at present, it will start charging per song this summer, the officials said. The fee is expected to be between 100 yen and 150 yen, but some releases may be more expensive, they said.
Accordingly, Sony will introduce on May 20 an antenna and a special tuner that can receive both interactive broadcasting and ordinary CS broadcasting from Sky Perfect TV for 62,000 yen.