Best Buy will sell downloadable music

DSN Retailing Today, May 22, 2000

MINNEAPOLIS -- Best Buy will enter the digital music market shortly when it re-launches BestBuy.com at the end of May. The retailer has signed an agreement to sell downloadable music from Liquid Audio and Supertracks on its Web site, offering approximately 70,000 singles from Liquid Audio's catalog along with liner notes, lyrics and album art. The program will be integrated into BestBuy.com, so consumers can make purchases directly through the retailer's Web site. The Supertracks system will also allow BestBuy.com shoppers to purchase downloaded titles directly from the site, providing the retailer with the ability to sell both physical and digital purchases in the same shopping basket. Supertracks has been named EMI Recorded Music's preferred solutions provider for digital distribution of music.

According to Scott Young, vp and gm of entertainment for BestBuy.com, the company chose to work with Supertracks and Liquid Audio because they provide security for the music labels and artists--to consumers as well by protecting purchase information and allowing the retailer to retain proprietary information.