EMI Licenses Online Music Service FullAudio

EMI Group, the third-biggest recorded-music company, granted a license to FullAudio Corp. to allow consumers to download music from the Internet, the first license agreement for FullAudio from one of the five major labels. The nonexclusive license will let FullAudio provide music from EMI, whose artists include the Beatles, to customers in the U.S. and Canada, the two companies said in a statement.

FullAudio secured music-publishing agreements with EMI and Bertelsmann last month. With this agreement, Chicago-based Full-Audio is the first company to have both sound recording and composition rights for its subscription service, the companies said.

FullAudio’s service is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter. Prices will range from $5 to $20, depending on the level of service customers choose, said Sandy Rapp, a FullAudio spokeswoman. FullAudio will compete with Pressplay, the online music-selling venture formed by Vivendi Universal and Sony Corp., and MusicNet, a joint venture of AOL Time Warner Inc., RealNetworks Inc., EMI and Bertelsmann. Pressplay and MusicNet are set to start in the third quarter.