Blink 182, Hanson, Jay-Z And Other Downloads Offered On LAUNCH

08/03/2000 5:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(8/3/00, 5 p.m. ET) - Tracks from a variety of artists--including Blink 182, Hanson, Jay-Z, 98 Degrees, Marvin Gaye, Luciano Pavarotti, and Smash Mouth--will be available on LAUNCH.com later this week as part of its affiliate relationship with Universal Music Group (UMG). LAUNCH.com is among the sites participating in the trials of bluematter, UMG's new digital download format.

The partnership will enable LAUNCH visitors to download UMG artist tracks from LAUNCH's Digital Download section. LAUNCH will offer its more than 4.3 million registered members legitimate digital music and enhanced multimedia content from UMG artists. More tracks will be added weekly as the trials roll out.

"The bluematter trials will begin to lay the groundwork for innovative new ways to approach music fans in the digital music market," said Dave Goldberg, CEO of LAUNCH. "We look forward to introducing LAUNCH.com users to Universal Music Group artists through bluematter downloads."

Through the LAUNCH.com Digital Download homepage, music enthusiasts have a shortcut to premier digital content, enabling them to download music in a wide variety of formats and musical genres.

Songs in the bluematter format come with enhanced multimedia content, such as biographies, photographs, lyrics, and credits. Bluematter tracks span a breadth of genres from rock to pop to classical. Additionally, the bluematter format allows consumers to introduce friends to new music through "superdistribution." Consumers can click the "e-mail a friend" button on their music players and send legal music references to friends via e-mail. Friends can listen to a sample of the song and opt to purchase the full track in the bluematter format.

-- Jason Gelman, New York

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