Southern Cross Austereo Partner With Sony, Universal In Digital Music Venture

Radio giant Southern Cross Austereo has bought into Universal Music Australia and Sony Music Entertainment Australia's digital music business Digital Music Distribution, the parties announced today.

The deal moves DMD closer to launching its subscription music service, which is likely to appear in the form of Songl, into the market place. Songl first announced its intentions when it sponsored the ARIA Number One event earlier this year. DMD itself currently supplies the content for 29 of Foxtel's audio music channels and content to Satellite Music Australia for use in hotels, clubs and retail stores.

The announcement said today that SCA's multimedia presence and entertainment delivery platforms would help Sony and Universal create “cutting edge music solutions” through DMD.

Universal Music Australia Managing Director George Ash said today that, “The combined expertise of Universal, Sony and SCA will bring unique approaches to music and entertainment delivery in the Australian market and we are proud to be a cornerstone in that process.”

Sony Music's Australasian boss Denis Handlin added that the joint venture, “Provides DMD with outstanding capacity to further develop dynamic digital music services and provide unique entertainment experiences to the Australian music public."

Rhys Holleran paid tribute to “long and successful relationships with both Sony and Universal through our national radio network”, with the Southern Cross Austereo CEO adding that through that they plan DMD's service to be “Australia's best digital music entertainment experience.”

Today's announcement also indicated that the on-demand subscription service, “Will offer subscribers the ability to have easy access to millions of tracks through a range of channels including - online, mobile, iPad, Sonos and smart TV.”