Mycokemusic.com: Coke moves into online music!

LONDON, UK (Coca Cola announcement) - Just a week after it signed a controversial sponsorship deal involving Top of the Pops, Coca-Cola is muscling in on record retailers by launching its own music download service in the UK!

The drinks giant will offer music fans the chance to download everything from Britney Spears to Coldplay and cult glam-rock outfit The Darkness. Coca-Cola will become the first high-profile consumer brand to get involved directly in the music business, launching what it claims will be the largest collection of tracks yet available.

"We're delighted to bring downloadable music to more people and we are working in close partnership with the music industry to do so. Consumers have told us that downloading music is confusing and complicated and what they want is an easy, simple to use downloadable service from a trusted brand," said the company's marketing director, Julia Goldin.
The site, MyCokeMusic.com, will launch in January next year offering a catalogue of over 250,000 new and recent hits from more than 8,500 artists with all four major record labels represented.

Also the Coca-Cola will launch the service in association with OD2, the digital download company founded by singer Peter Gabriel, which already provides the technology for BT's Dotmusic, HMV, Ministry of Sound, Freeserve and MSN.
Its decision to launch into the already crowded music download arena will be seen as an attempt to steal a march on the likes of Apple's iTunes service and Napster, the former scourge of the record industry recently relaunched as a legal service by software company Roxio.

Although Apple's iTunes has been hailed as a success in the US, with more than 17 million songs being sold at 99 cents each in the seven months since it launched, it has yet to launch a European version.

A spokeswoman said: "It heralds a new era in the UK music industry as legal downloading is set to be one of the most important innovations in the way consumers access music." Major stars are said to be donating exclusive tracks during the first 12 months of promoting the new site.