EDVARD PETTERSSON
Staff Reporter
Finding that rare, out-of-print Blue Oyster Cult album may soon be a lot easier than poring through the used album bin at your local record store or getting into a bidding war on eBay.
Starting in September, the Virgin Megastore in Hollywood will use new technology to give customers their first chance to digitally download albums and have them reproduced in a variety of formats, including compact disc and DVD.
Through machines located in the store, customers can hook up to the Sony Music catalogue and listen to 4,000 albums. If they want to make a purchase, they can print out a receipt and take it to the sales counter, where a clerk will download the album, “burn” a CD and print original artwork from the album.
The process takes five to 15 minutes, depending on the length of the album. The cost will be set by the retailer but is expected to be in line with prices for items in stock.
The process is made possible through digital distribution machines developed by RedDotNet Inc., a subsidiary of Carlsbad-based Digital On-Demand.
“This is an alternative for people who do not want to wait six weeks to special order a CD, or for kids who don’t have a credit card and cannot buy things online,” said Beth Walton, marketing director for RedDotNet. “We use a proprietary high-speed network to connect to the stores.”
Insiders say the move by Sony Music was prompted by the limited selection of material that music stores tend to stock.
Although many stores offer a wide variety of artists, the individual selections mostly consist of their best-selling album and little else.
“This offers record stores a better way of managing their inventory,” said Dave Goldberg, chief executive of Launch Media Inc., an Internet company that offers digitally downloadable music over the Web. “It is a big problem for record stores that customers cannot buy something because the store cannot or will not keep it in stock.”
Goldberg said the downloading system serves a different purpose than Web sites where individual songs can be downloaded but inadequate bandwidth can keep entire albums from being accessed.
Web sites such as launch.com offer free samples and individual tracks in MP3 format for die-hard fans. But consumers still must go to record stores or place online orders for albums.
That is changing now that broadband Internet access is becoming more widely available.
Full-length albums are now available for digital downloading on the Atomic Pop Web page, which last month began offering Public Enemy’s new record, “There’s a Poison Going On.”
In addition to Virgin Megastores, Digital On-Demand has an agreement with Trans World Entertainment Corp., a large national music retailer based in New York. The firm also hopes to sign on additional record labels to expand the number of selections available through the service.
The company receives a percentage of each sale made through its technology. Watson said Digital On-Demand is launching the service through two stores in Los Angeles and New York and hopes to be operating in 200 stores by Christmas.
