Stelios rivals Napster and iTunes with EasyMusic launch

by Jules Grant,, Brand Republic 20-Sep-04, 08:00

LONDON - Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the entrepreneur behind EasyJet and EasyCar, is entering the online music market with EasyMusic, a service which he says will rival the likes of Apple's iTunes and Napster.

The EasyJet founder is entering a partnership with Wippit, the music file sharing service. It is believed that some tracks on the service will cost as little as 25p, which may start a price war.

EasyMusic's partnership with Wippit follows in the footsteps of McDonald's and Coca-Cola, who have teamed up respectively with download services from Sony and OD2, the company founded by rock star Peter Gabriel.

Boosted by sales of the iPod, Apple's iTunes is the market leader. However, the service has been challenged in the US by RealNetworks, which halved the price of its downloads to boost its share of the market. The price promotion coincided with the launch of software that allowed users of Apple's iPod to play tracks downloaded from the Real Networks website.

Apple is currently being investigated by the Office of Fair Trading for possible breaches of EU competition rules after charging UK consumers more than users in France and Germany.

Haji-Ioannou built the UK carrier EasyJet into one of Europe's biggest no-frills airlines before stepping down from its board in 2002 to concentrate on other ventures including EasyCinemas and EasyHotels.

Meanwhile, EasyGroup is backing the launch of a fly-on-the-wall documentary for its EasyCruise holiday brand on Sky One. The series follows the success of 'Airline', the ITV1 show that documents the day-to-day operations of the EasyJet airline, and is seen as key to EasyCruise's launch marketing strategy.

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