Ministry Of Sound aims to cash in on music downloads

[KJ]

Owen Gibson
Wednesday April 30, 2003


Ministry of Sound: the UK's largest independent record label

Ministry of Sound is relaunching its website in a bid to make music downloads from artists such as Fatboy Slim, Christina Aguilera and Eminem a major part of its business.
The clubbing empire founded by James Palumbo, who last month quit the day-to-day running of the company, is planning to offer more than 100,000 tracks for sale individually and by monthly subscription.

Last week EMI announced plans to make more than 140,000 tracks from artists including Coldplay, Radiohead and Robbie Williams available to buy online.

EMI's decision is considered a significant step in record labels' efforts to dissuade users from using illegal download sites such as Kazaa in favour of buying music over the web.

In a key US ruling on Friday a judge threw out a claim from the Recording Industry Association of America that file-sharing sites were to blame for allowing users to swap pirated music files.

The decision to exonerate the companies that created the download technology will force the record industry to concentrate on devising legal solutions rather than forcing the closure of services.

Ministry's interests include its nightclub in south London, a range of clothing and a record label.

It has been hit hard by the downturn in the dance music market and hopes downloads will become a lucrative part of its business.

Ministry of Sound is in a unique position because it is a successful brand and a music destination. None of our competitors can offer this," said Mark Rodol, who took over from Mr Palumbo as chief executive last month.

"We have successfully built a very strong position as one of the top legal music download sites.

"With the redevelopment of the site we intend to ensure we are the biggest online destination for legal music downloads and streaming," he added.

Ministry claimed more than 50,000 tracks had been downloaded through its existing service over the past 12 months and said it hoped to boost that figure significantly over the next year.

Ministry described the website as an "integral" part of its future strategy.

The group, which claims an annual turnover approaching £100m, has become the UK's largest independent record label thanks to the popularity of its dance compilations.

[Bren Long]

Originally posted by Kelly Jones

In a key US ruling on Friday a judge threw out a claim from the Recording Industry Association of America that file-sharing sites were to blame for allowing users to swap pirated music files.

I just don't buy into the argument that file swapping sites are real cause for a downturn in music sales, although I recognise that they can contribution to it.
It also seems as if the record companies are trying to cash in on the popularity of the file swapping culture as another form of distribution (much more cost effective too!).
It will always be more appealing for the average computer user to get his/her music for the price of a phonecall rather than fork out the full whack for it.
But ridding the net of file swapping & download sites isn't the answer. You'd still have email groups with on-demand file distribution, and various other ways of obtaining tunes.

It has been hit hard by the downturn in the dance music market and hopes downloads will become a lucrative part of its business.

Applause is due to Ministry for what they have achieved so far within the dance market, but I've always believed that Ministry has 'pidgeon holed' itself to only a small sector (in terms of genre range)of the scene.
The music industry is feeling a downturn as a whole, not just the dance market, but there is still a market out there, and if they are being badly effected by a downturn, then they should be taking a more proactive approach to broadening their market coverage.
Many within the dance music scene, would also argue that Ministry have fallen into the trap of believing their own hype too much to an extent that it has started to backfire on them.