Musicmaker.com Hears Call Of Kiosks For Malls

Musicmaker.com, a provider of custom CDs and digitally downloadable music on the Internet, and U.K.-based Photo-Me International, a leading operator and manufacturer of coin-operated photo kiosks, have signed an agreement to introduce walk-up music kiosks in retail music stores and shopping malls in the United States and Europe. The stand-alone music kiosks are designed to allow consumers to create custom CDs on a song-by-song basis within 5-7 minutes and to personalize the case with a title or graphic art. The music kiosks will also support the MP3 format, allowing consumers to download one hour of MP3 music directly to an MP3 player in just 2-3 minutes. The new kiosks will compete with the in-store plan of Digital On-Demand, which signed agreements to digitally distribute music content from Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Recorded Music in such locations as Trans World Entertainment, Wherehouse Music, Musicland and Virgin Entertainment, as well as Kmart and Target. However, the distinction between the two is that Musicmaker's kiosks will allow for compilation CDs while Digital On-Demand's will be used more for full-length CDs from specific artists, sources said.Source: The Hollywood Reporter