Panasonic, Loudeye partner to offer music downloads

Panasonic is poised to enter the digital music market and take on Apple's iTunes with "Music Stream", a new service powered by Loudeye. Panasonic will compliment the new service with wristwatch-sized digital music players such as the SVMP120VK (£130) which features both MP3 and WMA playback, an FM Tuner, 512MB of memory and a reported 18 hours of playback from one AAA battery, while the less expensive SV-MP110 modal (£100) is similar but features 256MB of memory. Tracks on Music Stream can be had for 49p during an initial 10-day period whereafter rates will climb to 79p matching the iTunes Music Store, while individual streams for a penny a piece are also available according to the report. Loudeye has agreements with the five major labels (Sony, BMG, Universal, EMI and Warner Music) and a catalog of over one million tracks.

Filed under: iPod, industry