According to
Vedomosti , the largest Moscow Internet provider
Comstar-Direct (the
Stream brand) this fall will launch its own online music store, Stream Musik.
This was announced yesterday by Vladimir Malyavin, CEO of Comstar-Direct. Information about the exact cost of the compositions was not disclosed, however, it was said that prices "will be lower than in Europe, and slightly higher than on the Russian market." But here it is worth noting one important detail: Stream users will receive benefits, which is done to attract new customers and increase the loyalty of old ones. It also became known that the catalog will include several hundred thousand tracks that will be protected from copying using DRM.
It is expected that the company will be able to recoup its project in one and a half years, that is, by the end of 2008. However, Sonya Sokolova, general director of the online music store
Soundkey.ru , considers this figure doubtful: “Our project has existed since October 2006, but this year we will not yet break even.”