HMV launched their digital music store today and it has gone into direct competition with iTunes, although they say their not starting a price war.
They said today say they aren't competing with iTunes. Really? Even though they are going to use some rather aggressive marketing strategies to lure in the customers. Including Top 40, 40p tracks. And five free tracks, when you join we presume.
The HMV PR man put the dampeners on proceedings, by saying "These offers are just for launch. Although we don't have a formal end date, they will be around for quite a few days at the least. We are not going into a price war with iTunes."
The service is powered by 7digital, of which HMV own 50%, so it would seem to be a logical step, 7Digital have been around for a while and have mainly concentrated on dance music rather than the supposedly Top 40 music. So more Richie Hawtin than Jedward.
7Digital have over 10 million tracks and the quality is generally 320kps for new releases and for old stuff it ranges from 192kps to the iTunes standard 256kps. So it certainly passes the content litmus test for us and iTunes will be sure to take notice.
Jonathan Southall, marketing manager at 7Digital, said: "75 per cent of our tracks are at 256kbps or 320kbps. Anything below this is largely due to historical hangovers, as we've been ingesting content for seven years. We're ingesting new content and upgrading quality all the time."
Some interesting info has come out about how the new store will work. It's going to be a cloud service or "locker" as they call it, which will store the tracks in an online cloud and then will be accessible through any computer, or on the go. Very cool indeed. Are you listening Apple.
Will you use HMV Digital or stick to iTunes ? Does the service have any key advantages for you ?
Via Electricpip