WebListen.com, a pioneering Spanish company in on-line music subscriptions

Added: (Fri Aug 17 2001)

Pressbox (Press Release) - Subscription systems as a business model in on-line music already exist in Spain. A Spanish site has been offering the possibility since 1998 to download songs in mp3 format by any artist. In January of this year 2001, this company started to market a subscription service called BonoMusic, ahead of those which will shortly be offered by the platforms of the big record companies.

When it began, very few knew the meaning of the mp3 acronym, but many know it now thanks to Weblisten.com, who has developed its service from vouchers with limited downloads, to the system that is becoming the preferred on-line music download method for web users: a subscription for unlimited downloads during a defined time. For Weblisten this represents an important increase in income, which had been marred by free services like Napster.

As a pioneering company, Weblisten has gained the confidence of thousands of users, and has learnt to pinpoint the trends in the services that are requested. Weblisten offers very practical solutions, for example, the possibility to download during 48 hours music whose download was previously interrupted. In this way, Weblisten has expanded its customized subscription offer, to the extent that it will soon launch a new subscription model according to user connection. It isn’t logical for a navigator in a rowing boat, at 56 Kbps to pay the same as one who has a fast yacht, ADSL or cable.

Neither is it logical for a lover of 80s music to pay the same as one who is interested in the latest releases on the market. For this reason, the current offer from Weblisten is divided into two different types of subscription--BonoMusic and BonoHit, for 25,80$/month or 10,55$/month depending on the user’s interest: access to all the back catalogs or only the new releases.

Continuing along this line, Weblisten is planning to launch more segmented vouchers and even with different prices according to the user’s connection type. ‘A la Carte’ subscription with various user options will be available before Christmas.