SCA, Sony & Universal in digital joint venture

**UPDATED **

DMD develops and operates digital music delivery solutions and was developed as part of a relationship between Sony and Universal.

They are now entering into a partnership with Southern Cross Austereo to “create exceptional experiences through exciting and cutting edge music solutions for the Australian market”. They are saying they will do "more than just music."

Very soon they are planning to launch an on-demand digital music subscription service called 'Songl', designed and made in Australia. It will offer access to millions of songs, will stream SCA radio stations and provide opportunity for SCA talent to supply unique content. This will be delivered via online, mobile, ipad, sonos and smart TV.

Radio Today spoke with DMD CEO, Mark Shaw, about today's announcement….

"This is not about SCA buying into Songl, the headline here today is about SCA buying into DMD and we have a number of businesses under our umbrella. Songl is one of them but there's a whole range of other things that we're going to be doing in market.

The B2B play is very significant in this. We're now going to explore a whole range of opportunities at a B2B level with the full might of the 3 shareholders behind us and we think it's a really exciting thing for the market."

What does it mean for the shareholders ?

"For Southern Cross it's really taking solutions beyond just FM radio and digital radio. I think it gives them a really flexible music based platform they can now create innovative opportunities for clients, in particular retailers," said Shaw.

"For the labels….we can obviously grow the reach of music, come up with new ways we can take music to the consumer, it means we can grow the audience by increasing the number of platforms we create and places where people listen. So using our media partner (SCA) we can really amplify those platforms for artists.

For DMD, obviously we're based here in Australia. We have a lot of flexibility around what we have in terms of understanding our different clients needs and we think being locally based is a real upside for us."

What SCA and the labels had to say about the new venture:-

Rhys Holleran, CEO of SCA

“We are delighted to be able to enhance music and entertainment experiences for our audiences and introduce even more innovative solutions for our customers. We have long and successful relationships with both Sony and Universal through our national radio network which has been the catalyst for us all to join forces through DMD to deliver what we plan to be Australia’s best digital music entertainment experiences.”

Denis Handlin, Chairman and CEO of Sony

“This is a ground breaking day for the music industry and its consumers. This JV with Sony, Universal and SCA provides DMD with outstanding capacity to further develop dynamic digital music services and provide unique entertainment experiences to the Australian music public. The industry is characterized by constant innovation and Sony Music is incredibly proud of this outstanding local initiative.”

George Ash, Managing Director of Universal

“This is a great day for the Australian music and entertainment scene. The combined expertise of Universal, Sony and SCA will bring unique approaches to music and entertainment delivery in the Australian market and we are proud to be a cornerstone in that process.”