NRF: NCR Offers MP3s Download at Kiosks

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35% of music sales take place online, with limited options for offline, out of home or retail distribution of digital content. NCR and MOD have added DRM-free digital music to their Retail Digital Entertainment Platform, enabling brick-and-mortar retailers to offer digital albums and tracks directly to consumers for download to flash memory on Secure Digital (SD) cards, USB storage devices, and directly to many music playback devices.
 
NCR and MOD Systems enable retailers to deliver digital entertainment to consumers through interactive self-serve kiosks. In addition to music, MOD Systems’ growing digital entertainment catalog includes thousands of movies and television shows from major Hollywood and independent studios and aggregators. With digital entertainment delivery at retail and other high traffic areas—such as airports, malls and convenience stores—content owners expand their distribution opportunities and related revenue, and retailers can take advantage of the growing digital entertainment download market.
 
As announced in 2009, MOD Systems secured DRM-free digital music licenses with all major music labels and several independent aggregators, offering content catalogs comparable in size, pricing model, and quality to the major online stores. Consumers can purchase as many tracks as they prefer, based on the capacity of the storage media. MOD Systems and NCR are planning to commence roll-outs of their system in early 2010.
 
“Retail remains the top source of entertainment sales, yet retailers and content owners have not been able to take advantage of digital downloads,” said Alex Camara, vice president and general manager, NCR Entertainment. “NCR and MOD are first to offer retailers millions of the most popular songs in a compact kiosk footprint—a critical product offering as they look for ways to maximise shelf space and add the latest music to their stock.”
 
“The rate of decline in CD sales is consistent with diminishing retail shelf space for music,   which drives consumers to look online for music purchases and takes retailers out of the digital music growth opportunity,” said Anthony Bay, chairman and CEO of MOD Systems. “Our download kiosks give retailers a nearly limitless inventory of music requiring almost no store footprint, while giving the music industry another channel for digital sales, and consumers a convenient and easy way to build their music collections without requiring them to sit in front of their computers.”