Just hours after eBay announced its new music download site, a handful of songs popped up for sale–a sure sign of intense interest in the company’s plans to take on iTunes and others.
It was the wrong sign.
The files had been posted by people who were not authorized to sell music in the six-month test and were quickly removed. The site has been empty ever since.
eBay says it’s still waiting for one of its pre-approved music sellers to post a listing and that it has no more control over this than it does over the pacing of used car or Star Trek memorabilia auctions. But the nearly three-week lag in content underscores the tentativeness of the company’s entry into the digital music arena.
“We may look at the results of this and say, ‘Alright, this didn’t work, the community didn’t like that,’” eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said. “We have no idea, honestly.”
Count eBay as a definite “maybe” in the rush to digital music sales, placing the auction giant alongside Net retail powerhouse Amazon.com as one of the slowest in the race to forge new digital download businesses.
Despite the success of Apple Computer’s iTunes Music Store and interest from giants such as Sony and Microsoft, such reticence from the Net’s two biggest retailers speaks volumes about digital music’s profit potential. Sony and Apple sell hardware, and Microsoft sells software, but the ability for retailers to make money by selling digital music singles–each of which may have only a few pennies of profit–remains uncertain.
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