EMI and Roxio Partner for Secure CD Burning

EMI (www.emigroup.com), one of the five major labels, has announced a strategic relationship with CD-burning software company Roxio ( www.roxio.com). EMI also announced that they have made an equity investment of an undisclosed amount in Roxio. The relationship is intended to help the label develop software that will only allow a customer to "burn" a track when DRM permission is granted to do so.

EMI has joined with AOL/Time Warner, Bertelsmann, and Real Networks to form the MusicNet venture, which is expected to provide a legitimate platform for downloadable music.

"By partnering with a market leader such as Roxio, EMI will work to develop ways for consumers to easily record authorized music onto recordable CDs," said Jay Samit, senior vice president, New Media, EMI Recorded Music. "Cooperation between technology companies and the music industry is at the core of our plans to develop new revenue streams for our artists."

Roxio states that industry analysts have projected that by 2004, 25 percent of all media will be distributed via the Internet. By the end of this year, it is expected that 5 billion blank CDs will be shipped in support of an estimated installed base of 100 million CD recorders. The agreement between Roxio and EMI recognizes the fundamental changes taking place in the way content is distributed and the parties’ intent to create a new, secure standard for digital content delivery.