The Rolling Stones catalog is to be made immediately available for legitimate digital distribution for the first time. For a two-week exclusive period, the Rhapsody online subscription service and Best Buy will offer the entire post-1971 Rolling Stones catalog as part of a deal with Virgin/EMI, and the pre-1971 Stones material in an agreement with ABKCO. At the end of the exclusive period on Aug. 31, the EMI material will be made available for download through all legitimate services, including Apple’s iTunes Music Store and MusicNet.
The exclusive two-week deal kicks off a long-term pact between Rhapsody, which is owned by Seattle-based RealNetworks, and Best Buy. The 560-store, Minneapolis-based retail chain has installed up to 10 kiosks in each of its outlets where customers can experience Rhapsody. During the two-week Stones promotion, patrons can sign up for a 14-day free Rhapsody trial in Best Buy stores and through bestbuy.com. Best Buy will also sell subscriptions to Rhapsody, which costs $9.95 per month for unlimited streams and an additional 79 cents to burn individual tunes. Also during the two-week promotion, Best Buy will offer a 10% discount on the Rolling Stones’ EMI CD catalog.[more @ www.billboard.com]