Word: soundbuzz
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...handful of enterprising entrepreneurs find that attitude anachronistic. They're trying to make space in Asia's $5.2 billion music market for legal downloads. In 1999, Sudhanshu Saronwala quit his job as the managing director of MTV Asia to co-found the Singapore-based online-music store Soundbuzz. The venture made little progress for four years, but after iTunes proved a commercial success last year, Saronwala is trying again. "The labels have seen that online can be a real, viable distribution channel," says Saronwala. "The domestic labels as well as the internationals?everybody has pretty much embraced it wholeheartedly." Soundbuzz...
...That'll take time. Although Soundbuzz is set to become Asia's first regional digital music store, expanding soon into Hong Kong, India and Taiwan, its download numbers are still modest. Meanwhile, Asia's other pioneering online stores, like Max MP3 in Korea and iBiz in Taiwan, remain small and local. Japan, with its $4.16 billion music market and love of all things high-tech, should be an obvious opportunity for online-music sales. A survey by Japan's Nikkei Business Daily found that 47% of respondents would buy music from iTunes if they could. But Sony, the obvious candidate...
...jumped in last week with the U.S. debut of MSN Music, which is compatible with a range of players (iTunes files only work on the iPod). Hewlett-Packard has begun selling its own Apple-authorized iPod. And Asia may soon get its first regional digital-music store; Singapore's Soundbuzz, co-founded by a former MTV Asia exec, plans to move into Hong Kong, India and Taiwan by year's end. Have the music biz's blues turned to blue sky? Many think so. Downloading "will be as big as the cell-phone market," predicts Sim Wong...
| 1 |