Originally posted by aldo
Personally I think that Australia and UK are best suited for the next rollout... mainly due to the fact that Quebec (FRENCH BASTARDS!) isn't in either 
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Spotted this article in Australian IT news today regarding the new arrivals on the Australian Online Music Downloading scene....
Battle brews over net music
Kate Mackenzie
JANUARY 20, 2004
AUSTRALIAN companies are flocking to become part of the music download revolution, but no-one is quite sure what shape the brave new world of sound will take.
Observers are not sure who will dominate the new music delivery scene. The first salvos in the battle will be fired in the first half of this year, as the players struggle for brand awareness.
Familiar online heavyweights such as ninemsn and Telstra BigPond will tussle with relative unkowns like Amped and MuleMusic.
Internet company Destra, has already teamed up with four well-known retailers to offer its online music store.
Destra chief executive Domenic Carosa said the large music retailers accounted for most music sales, and his company would try to capitalise on this by offering download vouchers to customers.
"The biggest challenge for the retailers is how to convince people walking into your shop into an online sale," he said.
There were great opportunities for retailers on the internet, because much larger collections of music could be made available, he said.
"When you walk into a Sanity or HMV or a JBHiFi music shop, less than 5 per cent of the music available is physically in that store."
Other online music retailers are adopting different strategies.
Ninemsn, for example, is the country's most popular website, but its competitors argue this does not translate into a good understanding of the music business.
But Destra has been criticised for going to market too early without features such as artist information.
Telstra BigPond claims its direct relationship with 1.5 million customers, and its ability to bill them for songs on their internet access bills, will give it an advantage, but its model is relatively untested.
AMR Interactive principal analyst Jason Juma-Ross said it was too early to say who would succeed, but no offering seemed to have all essential ingredients.
"It's all happening over the next few months. We're waiting to see what happens with Apple, what happens with Microsoft.
"Obviously, Microsoft or ninemsn have a large number of existing visitors to the site, so, like Telstra, they've got a big advantage in that way," Mr Juma-Ross said.
While they are loath to admit it, each is almost certainly awaiting the local launch of Apple's iTunes, which has proved a huge success in the US.
The most popular song on Apple's iTunes website yesterday was Sunrise, by Norah Jones.
Apple Australia has repeatedly declined to comment on local iTunes plans, although music industry sources have tipped a launch in the first quarter of 2004.
Unlike other services launched in Australia, iTunes works with Apple's operating system and its phenomenally popular iPod digital music player.
A report by AMR Interactive says Apple's iTunes will make the most impact in the short term because of the hype surrounding its US service and the success of the iPod.
Music industry observer Phil Tripp said the WMA file format offered by other services, which required Windows Media Player 9, was a stumbling block for Apple competitors.
Only iTunes sold songs that could be used in Apple's iPod player, and its one-click purchasing system had no peer, Mr Tripp said.
"When Apple comes into this territory, they will take no prisoners in terms of marketing, and advertising," he said.
Even Apple admits it has not made a profit out of iTunes, seeing it as a way of boosting iPod sales. BigPond's pricing model - BigPond users pay $1.49 per song instead of $1.89 - prompted speculation the service was mainly designed to boost the ISP's customer acquisition and retention.
BigPond managing director Justin Milne said helping the ISP business was part of the motivation for BigPond Music, but denied it was the main reason.
"There are two commercial reasons. One is that we expect to make money from music, and we'll be making money from it from day one.
"Making money from entertainment will be more important going forward," he said.
"The other commercial reason to go into a venture like this is to add value to the proposition to join BigPond."
Mr Tripp was sceptical of the BigPond venture.
"With Telstra, the first question is why would you want to buy music from a company that can't even get email right?" he said.
Mr Tripp said first-mover advantage was a fallacy.
Most of the current and proposed online services would fail to deliver the range of songs and ease of use that customers would want, he said.
"The problems with the current flock of online music sellers that are madly rushing into the market is they offer only 15 per cent of the music the public really wants," Mr Tripp said.
"That means 85 per cent of what the public wants isn't there, so it's a less than satisfactory buying experience in terms of quantity."
The Australian Recording Industry Association is planning to launch a separate music chart, detailing the most popular downloaded songs.
