BBC May Launch Music Service

On the heels of BBC Worldwide’s partnership with EMI in June to provide online access to music from the label’s vast artist roster held in the network’s archives, plans are in the works to create a full-blown Web service that would allow streaming of BBC’s entire catalog. The service will be free for users as it is planned to be an entirely ad-funded project that will initially offer more than 1,300 tracks and videos from BBC radio and television show, including coverage of the Glastonbury festival and Radio 1 Live Lounge. As deals are struck with the remaining major music labels – Sony BMG, Warner and Universal-the catalog will be expanded to upwards of 50,000 tracks and 3,000 hours of video.

On the heels of BBC Worldwide’s partnership with EMI in June to provide online access to music from the label’s vast artist roster held in the network’s archives, plans are in the works to create a full-blown Web service that would allow streaming of BBC’s entire catalog. The service will be free for users as it is planned to be an entirely ad-funded project that will initially offer more than 1,300 tracks and videos from BBC radio and television show, including coverage of the Glastonbury festival and Radio 1 Live Lounge. As deals are struck with the remaining major music labels – Sony BMG, Warner and Universal-the catalog will be expanded to upwards of 50,000 tracks and 3,000 hours of video.

For now, the project is still in development and has not been approved by the organization’s board, but a BBC spokesman confirmed rumors last week that the venture was underway and expected to be in its early throes by the first half of 2009. BBC Worldwide was careful to promote the service as not being in direct competition to digital retailers such as iTunes or Amazon, but rather a contributor to the worldwide dialog about music as it will be connected to recommendation services such as Last.fm and highlight users’ social networking profiles.

However, plans are also being discussed to offer DRM-free downloads that will play on all brands of media players. No word has been given on how much BBC will charge for downloads, or even if they will charge at all. Whatever competition it may inevitably create, though, it will be well worth it to finally have decades worth of John Peel Sessions at the touch of a button.