EMI launches experimental D2C EMI.com website
It’s been an open secret for weeks, but EMI Music has now officially announced the launch of its new EMI.com website, which will act as a D2C portal to experiment with new digital technologies and discovery mechanisms.
Complete with a ‘beta’ tag slapped on the logo, the site offers news, streaming music, videos, playlisting features, charts and the ability for fans to create their own profiles. Click on our screenshots to see them bigger.
“EMI.com is designed to be a learning lab,” says Alex Haar, VP of digital special projects at the label.
“It will help us gain even more knowledge about consumers’ preferences and choices. Those insights will be invaluable to our artists, helping them respond to fans in a more relevant way. This is the beginning of a longer term experiment. In the coming months, we will continue to add content and features to the site.”
The streaming music is supplied as full songs in the UK, and 30-second clips in the US. Interestingly, non-EMI artists are involved too, albeit indirectly. Users can get recommendations by typing in artist names, including those not signed to the label.
EMI says future additions will include the ability to create widgets and purchase music, while also hosting exclusive content from EMI artists, including interviews, gigs and back-stage footage. Digital media firm Perform built the site, working with Imdad Capital.
Although it’s D2C, the site clearly isn’t trying to take on iTunes or other digital music stores (yet). However, one challenge EMI.com faces is the competition from other music discovery sites – the Imeems and iLikes of the world – which will be perceived as being more independent. However, if EMI.com is just about the learnings, rather than the traffic, this may not be a concern for the label.
December 17th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
[...] relacionada: (en inglés): http://musically.com/blog/2008/12/17/emi-launches-new-d2c-website/ 17 / 12 / [...]
December 17th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
It’s all well and good, but what exactly is EMI hoping to achieve with this? Why should a music fan choose to go to EMI.com rather than go to any number of other sites which have way more music beyond EMI artists. Who cares or knows whether an artist is on EMI? A few quick searches for non EMI artists bring up no more information other than a list of albums and videos which you can’t watch or listen to. And predictably you can’t of course listen to any track by the most famous EMI artist of all, The Beatles. Then the terribly sophisticated search engine recommends me The Saturdays and Sundays Best when I do the usual self regarding search for bands like The Sundays!
The trouble is that EMI led us to expect so much more. I’m a little dubious as to the kind of ‘invaluable insights’ they are likely to get out of this.
December 18th, 2008 at 9:08 am
[...] firm 7Digital is involved with EMI’s new EMI.com D2C website, although neither company is shouting about the partnership. That image on the right is cropped [...]
December 19th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
[...] mais pequena os norte-americanos apenas poderão escutar excertos de 30 segundos. Diz quem já acedeu que o portal não se diferencia muito da experiência proporcionada por outros serviços de música [...]
April 17th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
I dont normally post comments to blogs, but I have to say Music is just such a great part of my life thanks for this blog post.
April 21st, 2009 at 4:10 pm
good work.
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Really great post – I’ve been looking for info like this for awhile.
November 21st, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Sometimes I think that I’m not going to bother buying the latest product that’s out, because it’s out of date so quickly!
December 15th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Nowadays in education, blogs also play an important part. Professors use blogging to document the lessons that they have discussed and taught. This way, students who who have missed classes, can easily catch up with their assignments.