- Shell Profit Falls 70% but Beats Forecasts
- Alcatel-Lucent Sees Improved Margins Ahead
- Sony Posts Quarterly Loss on Firmer Yen, Weak TVs
- British Airways Seeks Delay in Boeing Payments: Report
- Airlines Carry Less Cargo, People in June: IATA
- Sumitomo Trust to Buy Citi's Nikko Asset Unit
- Nintendo First-Quarter Profit Slumps, Keeps Forecast
- US Senate Probes Goldman, Deutsche: Report
- China's Central Bank Reassures on Monetary Policy
- 11 Buying Opportunities in Media Stocks
- Strategist Sees 'Risk Appetite Recovery' Now
- Power is Sexy
- Favre's Choice Hurts Ticket Speculators
- What Does the Yahoo-Microsoft Partnership Mean for Advertising?
- Time Warner Beats Expectations, Moves Towards Content Focus
- Farr: What's Really Driving Your Investment Strategy?
- A Profitable Hangover at Caesar's
- Art Cashin: The 'Critical' Factor This Week
Text Size 
Sony Corp's, Sony Music Entertainment, the second largest music company in world, said on Wednesday it made a strategic investment in IODA, a digital distributor of independent music.
The move is a sign of trend by major music companies to tap into the indie music sector's growing importance. More artists are able to use smaller record labels to promote their music as the traditional barriers to physical distribution of CDs become irrelevant in a digital world.
Sony Music, home to major artists such as Beyonce and Bruce Springsteen, already has its own independent distribution unit, RED, which will now use IODA's digital distribution as part of the overall Sony Music network.
"IODA is a natural extension of our indie strategy," said Thomas Hesse, Sony Music's global president digital. "As entrepreneurs, we think this is a business we'd like to grow and expand and as a result we took an investment."
The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
More From CNBC.com
- China Requests Reserve Currency Debate at G8
- Stimulus Is a Small Patch for a Very Big Economic Hole
- What's The Forecast for Summer? Higher Stocks
- More Asia Pacific News
Six year-old IODA is one of a growing group of digital music distributors who help smaller labels handle everything from digital rights licensing through to royalty payment administration, as well as promotional support. It has nearly two million songs in its catalog, which it licenses to more than 400 digital storefronts worldwide.
Others in the sector include The Orchard and INGrooves, as well as many other smaller players.
"Because of the democratization of media and distribution channels, independents have taken on a larger role in the business," said Kevin Arnold, chief executive of IODA.
Arnold said his company would benefit from being able to use Sony Music's [SNE
Loading...
()
] existing global network of digital technology beyond distributing songs to include everything from ringtones to music videos.
Print
Email
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes