TORONTO PACK TO DOWNLOAD HMV
Copyright 2001 www.tombraiderchronicles.com

[ November 18th 2001 ]

Toronto Group, specialising in the digital downloading of music and other products via the Internet, has signed an agreement with UK HMV, the high street retailer, to allow the downloading of music and games from the hmv.co.uk website.

The agreement is the latest in a list of Tornado’s deals with a range of retailers and games companies, including EMI/Virgin, Eidos and Rage Software. Tornado has developed a digital warehouse for the secure storage of digital products and offers the technical infrastructure so that music and other products can be selected, downloaded and purchased via retailers’ websites.

Digital distribution is one of the few survivors of the Internet bubble that is thought to have a promising future. Once broadband Internet access is widely available people will be able easily to download music, books, games and other products.

Stores such as HMV believe that digital distribution will become a significant market in the future and want to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to exploit the opportunity. HMV already sells CDs and other products via its website, providing access to more than 250,000 titles.

It is thought that current online purchasers are likely to switch to digital downloading since it offers advantages such as buying a computer game one level at a time and selecting specific music tracks.