iTunes squeezes out Coca-Cola
2006-06-21 12:57
New York - Coca-Cola Co said on Tuesday
it will close its British online music service mycokemusic.com
on July 31, after losing market share to Apple Computer Inc's
iTunes Music Store.
Mycokemusic launched in Britain in January 2004 and quickly
became the biggest online music download service there in brand
recognition and sales. But it was overtaken later in the year
by iTunes, which launched a dedicated UK site in June 2004.
Mycokemusic posted notice of the closure on its website on
Tuesday. Mycokemusic also sent e-mails to music fans who had
registered with the site.
Coca-Cola had positioned the site as a mix of brand
promotion and music store.
"In 2004, the digital music scene was just developing and
the only way for Coke to offer access to music downloads was to
open our own store. That's not true today and there is no need for Coke to continue to run a store," said the statement.
Officials at mycokemusic were not immediately available for
comment.
According to data from UK market research company XTN,
iTunes held a 54% share of the British online music
market in November 2005. Mycokemusic was in fourth place with a
six percent share, behind Napster Inc and Wippit.com.
Mycokemusic is powered by digital music technology company
Loudeye Corp's European unit OD2, a company co-founded by rock star Peter Gabriel in the late 1990s.
The concept was to let fans use credits, gained via Coke
promotions or bought with their credit cards, to purchase songs
online from a wide range of artists from both major and
independent record labels.
The majority of the songs on the service are in Microsoft
Corp's Windows Media Audio file format, which is not
compatible with the most popular digital music player, Apple's iPod.