BMG signs music deal with Destra

Destra chief executive officer Domenic Carosa said, "BMG joins us, together with EMI, FMR and Sony, to sell songs by artists such as Guy Sebastian, Shannon Noll, Pink, and Britney Spears over the Internet for AUD$1.99 per track".

BMG will initially provide over 10,000 tracks and build up to its catalogue of 40,000 tracks in the next few months in the WMA (Windows) Format.

BMG Australia Managing Director Ed St John said, "We are delighted to be announcing this deal with Destra - and in doing so, to offer our extensive catalogue to online consumers". BMG will be selling music online through Destra's retail partners Sanity.com.au, HMV.com.au, JBHiFi.com.au and ChaosMusic.com.au.

DestraMusic will increase their music catalogue with plans to have over 500,000 tracks available for purchase by mid-2004. The music is in the WMA Format and has built in technology for customers to copy the songs onto a CD three times, as well as to a portable media player, but will not allow the tracks to be transferred to pirate Web sites.

"We have built-in technology that give the record companies protection from copyright violation, but will allow customers to make copies to CDs for playing in their car or portable CD player," said Carosa.