MELBOURNE – 21 April, 2004 - destra Corporation Limited (ASX: DES), Australia’s pioneering Digital Rights Management (DRM) provider, have signed another major music label – Warner Music Australia to sell their music online through Destra’s retail partners Sanity.com.au, ChaosMusic.com.au , HMV.com.au, and JBHiFi.com.au.
Destra’s CEO, Mr. Domenic Carosa said, “With the addition of Warner Music Australia, Destra is now selling music over the Internet for five major labels including BMG Australia, EMI Music, Festival Mushroom Records (FMR) and Sony Music Entertainment.
Warner Music Australia will initially provide a significant number of tracks from artists including REM, Matchbox Twenty, Missy Elliot and Magic Dirt.
Warner Music Australia, Director, Jon Simon said, “Our relationship with destra will enable some of Australia’s most important traditional record stores to further establish their online brand by servicing their customers with the greatest choice of music that can be played on a variety of devices.”
DestraMusic.com (100% owned by destra) was the first company in Australia to launch a legal service in December 2003, offering digital music through its online retail partners - Sanity.com.au, ChaosMusic.com.au, HMV.com.au, and JBHiFi.com.au, with just over 200,000 tracks from the major record companies such as BMG Australia, EMI Music, FMR and Sony Music Entertainment.
DestraMusic will increase their music catalogue with plans to have over 500,000 tracks available for purchase by mid-2004.
The music is in the WMA Format and will have built in technology for customers to copy the songs onto a CD three times, as well as to a portable media player, but will not allow the tracks to be transferred to pirate websites.
“We have built-in technology that give the record companies protection from copyright violation, but will allow customers to make copies to CDs for playing in their car or portable CD player,” said Domenic.
About Warner Music International
Warner Music International, a leading company in national and international repertoire, is headquartered in London and operates through 37 affiliates and numerous licensees in over 50 countries.