Bell Canada has joined the gold rush in on-line music sales that started a little more than a year ago when Apple Computer opened its doors to its fabulously successful iTunes service.
The Sympatico Music Store is Bell's customized bilingual music download service. It is powered by Puretracks, the country's first digital music download service.
All Canadians will be able to buy music at the store at sympatico.ca, although Sympatico's 1.4 million subscribers will have access to some exclusive benefits and special pricing, the company said.
The store offers a catalogue of more than 250,000 songs for download. The store is being supported by the big five record labels and several independent companies. Individual songs will be sold for as little as 99 cents, with albums starting at $9.99. Users can also access 30-second previews of all songs.
Once downloaded, the music can be transferred compact discs and portable devices that are compatible with Windows Media Player.
The service intends to promote a different featured artist every month, and contests and promotions will be tied to on-line concert events, the company said.
Bell Canada also has 30 preprogrammed, commercial-free digital music stations broadcast over its satellite-dish ExpressVu service.
"Listening to on-line music is one of the most popular activities for Sympatico customers," Bell Canada vice-president Charlotte Burke said in a statement.
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