Kiss downloads site points way forward.

Commercial radio station launches digital service

by Jim Larkin

Emap's Kiss 100 presses the button on a new downloads service this week, heralding what could be the year in which commercial radio fully turns the dream of selling digital music itself into a reality.

The service, which is being launched this Wednesday, pairs the broadcaster with specialist dance retailer trackitdown.net to allow listeners to buy all the tracks played by specialist DJs on the Kiss network.

Not only will it provide a new source of revenue for Emap Radio, but, more significantly, indicates a way forward for the commercial radio sector, which has spent the past year undertaking trials and soft launches into selling digital downloads. Strategies drawn up range from the straightforward, such as allying with a digital retail partner which is linked to a station's website, to more sophisticated technologies which allow listeners to buy music on the move.

"This year will see music radio get to grips with the new millennium version of what has always been its strength, which is its ability to sell music," says technology specialist UBC Media Group chief executive Simon Cole, whose own company has been at the forefront of such trials. "In the music industry, the most effective way to sell records has been to get radio stations playing them. Now those stations have become the natural place to buy them."

Through the Kiss launch, listeners will be able to buy tracks played by specialist DJs such as Carl Cox and John Digweed via the site www.totalkiss.com.