AOL’s Paid Music Service Finally Ready

AOL Time Warner Inc.’s America Online is set to launch its long-awaited subscription music service today, giving the biggest promotional push yet to a legitimate Internet music offering.

The paid service is built around music and technology supplied by MusicNet, a joint venture launched by RealNetworks Inc. and three major media companies, including AOL’s corporate sibling Warner Music Group. Announced with great fanfare in early 2001, MusicNet’s only distributor has been RealNetworks.

Like label-sanctioned services from Pressplay, Listen.com of San Francisco and MusicMatch Inc. of San Diego, MusicNet on the AOL service will have to compete with unauthorized free sources of tunes online, including Kazaa and other popular file-sharing networks. And so far, none of those networks have been able to attract more than a fraction of the free services’ huge audiences.

But MusicNet on AOL has a head start: an inside track to AOL’s 26.5 million U.S. subscribers. Reflecting its new strategy of promoting premium services, AOL plans to link the MusicNet offering to several features of the basic AOL service that are popular among members, including its music searches, radio stations and exclusive music-oriented content.

The service is designed to let users with dial-up modems download songs about 50% faster than on file-sharing systems. And AOL executives hope that the MusicNet offering will prod subscribers to sign up for AOL’s high-speed Internet service, which has lost ground to competing telephone and cable companies.

The new music package will be only the second premium service offered to AOL subscribers, spokeswoman Ann Burkhart said. The first was Call Alert, a $3.95-a-month service that screens telephone calls for people while they are online.

MusicNet on AOL will be available in three packages, including an $8.95-a-month deal for unlimited downloads and unlimited use of an online jukebox. But downloaded songs can’t be copied to a portable device or recorded onto CD; instead, AOL charges an additional $9 a month for the right to copy a maximum of 10 songs onto a CD.