Danish telecom company TDC has launched a new music service, Play 10, to complement its all-you-can-eat package, which is bundled in broadband and mobile customers’ subscriptions.
Play 10 additionally allows TDC broadband subscribers to download and keep 10 tracks per month for a 50 Danish kroner ($9) monthly fee. The tracks can be burnt to CD and converted to MP3. Additional Play 10 tracks will cost eight kroner ($1.45).
The new service has been welcomed by the Danish branch of IFPI.
Play 10 complements TDC Play, a service introduced on April 1, 2008 in Denmark. All the majors signed up with TDC and there is a catalog of around three million tracks.
Play is available to all TDC subscribers of its mobile phone and broadband services. Subscribers can download unlimited music for free as long as they continue using TDC for their mobile phone and broadband connections. Downloads cannot technically be burnt to CD or converted to MP3 and used on other devices; if the subscription stops, the Play service ceases immediately.
With Play 10, however, the selected tracks can now be burnt to CD and converted to MP3 for listening on devices other than the assigned mobile handset. “Many of our customers have been waiting for a service like this, ever since we launched Play,” said Soren Tvilsted, head of TDC Musik.
Record labels see the new service as another step in the right direction, according to IFPI. Labels received lump-sum revenues from Play for the all-you-can-eat service, while Play 10 revenues will be more in line with traditional royalty schemes.
Figures about the initial success of Play 10 have not yet been released. TDC said the amount of music downloaded via Play in its first month was equal to a threefold increase in music sales, based on monthly statistics against last year’s annual average.
