MP3s going for a song

taken from The Star 6 July 2009

PETALING JAYA: Good news for music lovers. Sony Music Malaysia is offering 10 back-catalogue compilation CDs of 50 MP3s for just RM16.90 each.

Some of the titles are Best of Pop (includes Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys and Avril Lavigne), Best of Dance (includes Shakira and Dr. Alban) and Lagu Pop Terbaik (includes Misha Omar, Jaclyn Victor and M.Nasir)

Adrian Lim, managing director of Sony Music Malaysia, said the idea behind this campaign is to provide an affordable music price to the consumer. “At RM16.90 per disc, this works out to 35sen per song,” he said.

The MP3 compilations will be available at most pasar malam stalls in the Klang Valley and mynews.com outlets in shopping centres from this Friday.

“We are also working to have the CDs on sale at petrol kiosks and convenience stores,” Lim said.

“Our objective is to encourage more people to buy original music CDs. MP3 is a practical format; the music is easily transferable to portable music players and handphones, which is what most people like to do.”

Lim said Sony Music is mulling over selling compilations of MP3 songs on thumbdrives in the future.

Sony Music’s marketing campaign is a test for the local music industry. “In Thailand, it sold over 750,000 CDs (comprising more than 35 song titles) so far this year through 7-Eleven outlets, according to Lim.

He said the CDs contain songs that were between five and 10 years old, and that there are no plans to sell compilations of the latest songs at that price.