Computer audio equipment maker Creative Technology Ltd and online music service Soundbuzz.Com launched an alliance on Tuesday aimed at capturing Asia’s infant fee-based online music market. The two companies are setting up online music stores in Singapore, Hong Kong and India — regions where knock-off CDs burned by sophisticated piracy syndicates or downloaded off the Internet for free are hammering sales of recorded music. Soundbuzz.Com and Creative launched the first of their online stores in Singapore on Tuesday, offering 250,000 songs at $1.16 each in a format designed for quick downloading into Creative’s digital music players.
“We’ve all been through the huge CD-burning mania of the past. What has clearly emerged over the last 12 to 18 months is that the method of consumption of music is changing,” said Sudhanshu Sarronwala, chief executive of five-year-old Soundbuzz.
