Top Online Bookseller Amazon.com Is Adding Music to Its Library

SEATTLE — Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. has moved beyond books for the first time, making a play for the rapidly growing market of music sales over the Internet.

The Seattle-based company, the leader in online book sales, with $87 million in sales in its most recent quarter, faces stiff competition in the new market--notably from online music sellers CD Now Inc. and Music Boulevard, a unit of N2K Inc.

But with sales of recorded music over the Internet projected to rise from about $300 million this year to $2.5 billion in 2002, analysts and industry executives say Amazon.com (https://www.amazon.com) is well-positioned to get a piece of the market.

“They’re going to be able to carve out a space, but I don’t think they’re going to take over,” James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research, said.

Amazon.com executives say music is a natural extension for the 3-year-old company that pioneered retail sales over the Internet and now calls itself the nation’s third-largest bookseller.

“The No. 1 request we’ve gotten from our customers is to add music,” said David Risher, senior vice president of Amazon.com.

Amazon.com’s music site will offer compact disc titles at discounts of 10% to 40% off retail, with top sellers sold at 30% off.

Amazon.com will offer about 100,000 titles at launch, compared with about 40,000 in a typical retail store, Risher said.

Amazon.com has seen its stock rise to record levels this week. On Wednesday, it jumped $2.88 to close at $54.13 on Nasdaq.