The domestic digital music industry is finally getting ready to rock and roll as the dispute about the copyright issue is now being settled slowly and service providers jumping onto the Net to promote their brands and strengthen marketing.
According to industry sources, a host of music firms and Internet ventures are forming alliances to launch their Web-based MP3 files service channels, paving the way for a full-fledged digital music market.
Toremi Record Co. and Nanum Tech Co. already kicked off a commercial service of MP3 files last week. At the Internet site (www.letsmusic.com), visitors can download the MP3 digital music files for less than 1,000 won per title.
Nanum Tech officials said minors who do not have credit cards are also allowed to purchase the digital music files, using the limited payment system named ``iMint'' designed for the youth.
Up until now, there have been unofficial Internet service websites for MP3 files but Letsmusic marks the first site which has secured a full license contract with a record firm.
Goldbank, an Internet venture, said it will launch an MP3 file site in mid- October while Liquid Korea and Cream Record are also joining hands to join the MP3 bandwagon.
More significantly, a host of major record album companies, which vociferously opposed the digitalization of music on the Net for fear of losing their grip on the distribution market, are moving swiftly to catch up with the fast-paced changes in favor of the Net-based music market.
They are in talks with major electronics firms such as Saehan Information System and Samsung Electronics which manufacture the Walkman-like MP3 players.
The envisioned alliances and partnerships are expected to spawn online shopping malls, upping the ante in the fledgling digital music market.
The sudden acceleration in the digital music market comes from the settlement -- however feeble it may be at this point -- between major record firms and online information providers over the copyright issue.
In the first half of this year, music copyright agents threatened to file a suit against online service providers which meditate digital music files for copyright infringement, which sparked Internet users to express deep displeasure.
At the time, a bevy of obscure copyright agents representing music producers and record companies took issue with the free-of-charge MP3 music files uploaded on the online service sites, demanding their removal.
With MP3 files, computer users can download whatever music files, whose quality matches that of a CD, off the Internet and listen to them via Walkman-like MP3 players.
The universal availability set off a round of copyright dispute and local copyright agents and groups such as KOMCA (Korea Music Copyright Association) called for online service providers to remove free MP3 files.
The controversy took an intriguing twist as smaller and obscure copyright agents clashed with domestic Internet service operators over digital music files.
Bowing to the pressure from the agents, Internet service providers such as Hitel, Unitel and Chollian, accepted the request, removing the RA, RM files from their database centers and it is only recently that ISPs restarted the MP3 file service on their networks.
In the meantime, industry analysts estimated that over 1 million units of the MP3 players will end up in the hands of domestic users and that the online digital music market here will grow to 20 billion won by 2001.
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