BUSINESS BRIEFS
Consortium hopes music on memory cards catches on
Advertiser news services
NEW YORK — Just as vinyl once gave way to compact discs as the main physical medium for music, could CDs be replaced now by a fingernail-sized memory card?
Perhaps not entirely, but SanDisk Corp., four major record labels and retailers Best Buy Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are hoping that albums sold on microSD memory cards will at least provide an additional stream of sales. The companies were expected to present plans today to sell memory cards loaded with music in the MP3 format, free of copy protections.
Called "slotMusic," the new format is meant to address two intertwined trends. Most albums are still sold in a physical format — 449 million were sold on CDs in 2007, while 50 million were sold digitally, according to Nielsen SoundScan — yet CDs are decreasingly popular. Albums sold on CD dropped almost 19 percent last year.
Given this, the record labels — Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group Corp. and EMI Group PLC — are hoping slotMusic can be another physical revenue source — and one that is more versatile than CDs, given the kinds of gadgets people carry around these days.
Unlike when the CD was introduced and people had to buy new players, many people already have the ability to play slotMusic albums, since many cell phones and multimedia players support microSD cards.
Daniel Schreiber, who heads the audio-video business unit at SanDisk, said slotMusic albums will be sold on 1 gigabyte microSD cards, which means they will be able to hold a full album and related content such as liner notes and cover art. Buyers will be able to use extra space on the cards to hold songs and photos from their own collections.
Schreiber expects the cost of slotMusic releases to be "in the ballpark" of current CD prices.
SOUTH KOREA STORE SALES LURE SHOPPERS
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's department store sales increased at the fastest pace in almost three years in August as outlets lowered prices to attract shoppers.
Sales at the three biggest chains rose 14 percent from a year earlier, more than double July's 5.9 percent gain, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said yesterday in Gwacheon. Last month's increase was the biggest since December 2005.
Retailers including Lotte Shopping Co. held discount sales in August to woo customers, while shoppers also bought more televisions and sporting goods during the Beijing Olympics. Confidence among consumers rebounded last month from an eight-year low thanks to a drop in oil prices.
VENEZUELA TO SELL MORE OIL TO CHINA
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez said yesterday that Venezuela will sign accords aimed at increasing the amount of oil it sells to China.
Chavez has sought to diversify oil sales beyond the United States, which still purchases the largest share of Venezuela's oil despite years of political tensions.
The deals with China include plans to both build a refinery and start a joint oil project in the crude-rich Orinoco River belt, and to construct oil tankers, Chavez said on his weekly radio and TV broadcast. He did not give specifics of the accords, which are to be finalized this week when he visits Beijing.
Venezuela also will help build a refinery in China to handle Venezuelan crude, Chavez said. The countries have previously agreed to build a total of three refineries in China. He also said the governments plan other agreements to team up in the iron industry, telecommunications, agriculture and in building railways in Venezuela.
IRAQ TO SIGN GAS DEAL WITH SHELL
BAGHDAD — Iraq's Oil Ministry says it will sign a gas deal with Royal Dutch Shell today..
A Ministry spokesman also said yesterday that the joint venture will be established immediately to invest in natural gas development in the southern province of Basra. Iraq will control 51 percent of the venture, while Shell will hold the remaining 49 percent.
