“Launched in 2002, Belgacom Skynet Music Club has grown to be one of Belgium’s leading digital music platform via iTunes,” Brussels Review reports. “Over the past three years, Belgacom’s subsidiary Skynet has been allowing customers to purchase on-line music downloads, with some 1.5 million tracks downloaded in 2005. Additionally, Belgacom ADSL Go, Plus and VDSL customers can view exclusive clips and concerts, and download, via http://www.adsl.be, six free CDs a year. Rather than compete Belgacom has decided to ally itself with iTunes, the world’s largest on-line music store, and offer its customers over 2 million songs available on iTunes Music Store.”
Full article here.
Belgacom’s Press Release, 27 January 2006:
When they launched the Skynet Music Club in 2002, Belgacom and its subsidiary Skynet started a trend: the downloading of online music in Belgium. Since then, the music club has grown into the country’s leading digital music platform. In order to professionalize its music offering, and effectively respond to its customers’ needs, Belgacom and Skynet cooperate with iTunes.
Over the past three years, Belgacom and Skynet have been offering two types of services. Firstly, the Skynet Music Club provides a treasure-trove of information on music for fans of all types of music, and allows them to download music legally. In 2005, 1.5 million tracks were downloaded. Secondly, all Belgacom ADSL Go, Plus and VDSL customers can view exclusive clips and concerts, and download six free CDs a year via http://www.adsl.be
To provide its customers an even broader music offering and promote legal music downloading, Belgacom and Skynet work together with iTunes, the world’s largest online music store: the catalog contains two million tracks in all genres, and by all kinds of artists, including a host of performers from Belgium. From now on, Belgacom and Skynet will be offering their online music services via the iTunes Music Store, which means that they will be working with iTunes, the driving force behind the digital music revolution. With this move, Belgacom and Skynet demonstrate their aim to become the digital music trendsetters in Belgium. From now on, Skynet Music will therefore be offering its download service in cooperation with iTunes.
More than ever, the Skynet site is a source of information for music lovers, featuring ringtones, concert and festival agendas, games and the promotion of artists whose music is available in iTunes Music Store. Not to mention the advantages derived from Skynet’s partnership with the Ancienne Belgique concert hall.
Skynet Music Club will discontinue the sale of music packages: customers have until the end of March 2006 to use their remaining credits. As an introduction to the new service provided in conjunction with iTunes, they will receive a personal iTunes code by e-mail, which will enable them to download (until the end of April 2006) 20 tracks of their choice, free of charge, via the iTunes Music Store. From today, ADSL Go, ADSL Plus and VDSL Boost customers who are not yet Skynet Music Club members, can request their personal iTunes code via http://www.adsl.be, which is also featuring exclusive concerts by Robbie Williams, Moby, The Pixies and Bon Jovi… From April this year, they can sign up for a free music program via iTunes. Starting in mid-2006, these customers will be provided with a secure payment means, i.e., have their music downloads deducted from their Belgacom bill.
Music downloads can be played on a PC, copied onto a CD, or, for mobile users, copied onto an iPod, the popular MP3-player, which is now also available in different Belgacom points of sale.
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Wow. This is the first time I’ve seen tumbleweed blow across the Reader Feedback section. Not too many Mac users in Belgium then.
Hehe.
Im from the UK, but I can pretend to be from Belgium if you want…
…at a cost
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This is how Terminator started isn’t it?
Fat bloody Belgian bastards.
effwerd “This is how Terminator started isn’t it?”
What, a Belgian music club taking over the world?
That’s a scary thought, going by their Eurovision entries. The humans would probably cause nuclear war just to stop the torment.
Please may I have some mayonaisse on my French Fries??
Beat iTunes you can’t, then join them you do
-Yoda
This is a unique deal for Apple though… folding the biggest Belgian Online Music store into the iTunes solution. Well done… now if only the Halo-effect would grow to bigger proportions in Belgium too.
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For the Halo effect to occur, Apple needs to open Apple stores throughout the EU. Apple support in Europe is dismal. Especially in Germany.
Wow, Belgians are smart!
3 years ago there were no Apple Stores in central Amsterdam. Now there are three and all seem to be doing well. Apple support is not bad at all – but Mac marketing is. Every Apple advertisement is about iPods, never about Macs.
This wins the award for “Most Gratuitous Use of the Word ‘Belgium’ in an MDN Article”. (Stupid turlingdromes don’t even know what it means…)
Being a Belgian Mac-user, I can tell you that more and more of my friends are buying/using Mac’s now… I’m not a skynet-user anymore though…
MW: “Best” as Skynet choose the BEST solution for its musicdownloads!