For many consumers of (paid-for) digital downloads today, the name eMusic may not carry the same weight as, say, iTunes, or the well-stocked and fast-rising Amazon MP3. In fact, I wouldn’t think it too much to say that a large swath of the downloader demographic are entirely unfamiliar with the indie music storefront. Which may be why the company is looking to “break out” of its present audio-only repertoire, perhaps to give the budding sellers of television programs on the Web another party to compete with.
But an effort, described earlier today by Liz Gannes of NewTeeVee, to build an annex for video delivery adjacent to its music library may not sound so appealing to consumers. Gannes reported eMusic CEO David Pakman as saying that the company would be open to offering video alongside its standard services, but only if “networks and studios would agree to let it sell DRM-free MPEG-4 files.”
Pakman said that sales of TV programs in particular would likely be the most economically feasible venture for eMusic. But in order to pursue the video market, the company would have to divest itself of its strict adherence to an indie-only shopping experience, where much of non-mainstream music lives and regular album sales figures tend to keep to four-, five-, and six-figure levels of success. Which might detract from the brand.