Du's entry into music download service a surprise

Dubai: It did seem that du, the telecom operator, had made a left-field choice when it went ahead and launched a music download service.

That too in a virtual marketplace where sourcing free from pirate sites is the default setting for a significant number of music lovers.

A leading music label did try a similar online exercise last year, but then decided to pull out after it found that targets were hard to come by in a rampant music piracy environment.

So where is the need for du to get into a toxic situation like this? But with more than 19,000 songs in its portfolio — cutting across genres — and growing, the company believes it is only a matter of time before more users start going the payment route to get what they want.

Experiences

According to a du spokesperson, there are the past experiences from other markets to go by.

"If one has to look at global case studies, paid-for content has had an impact in countering piracy," the spokesperson said.

"In the case of Spotify, the Sweden-based music streaming service, has reportedly been linked to a 25 per cent drop in music piracy there ever since they went live in 2009.

It's not hard to see why — they got their pricing right and they made the experience compelling by enabling users to connect with friends through the services' social features in the process."

On its part, the telecom operator believes it has a similar value proposition to offer. For Dh1 a day, customers can download as many as five full-length tracks from the Music Store.

As a value-add, they can also transfer it to any device as well as go for repeat download of the same tracks if needed. The service also comes with Facebook integration and even double as caller tunes.

"The recent move is to create an eco-system on the back of our robust HSPA+ (4G) network that enables consumers to access their content on-demand and on the move in an environment that fosters experiential value at a compelling price point," the spokesperson added.

"As the proliferation of smart devices continues and become an integrated extension of consumers' lifestyle choices, what we are trying to do is bring interesting propositions to customers.

"Operators around the world look at value added services as a vital ingredient to their business model… we are no different."

The proof will be in the downloads. According to du, the Music Store has been recording a consistent growth in the number of new users month-on-month. It is accompanied by "a positive build-up in the download or consumption of songs per user," the spokesperson added.