Chunghwa Telecom Co. Ltd., the leading telecommunication company in Taiwan, and KKBox Inc., the nation’s largest digital music provider, launched March 3 an online music service that allows businesses to legally play pop music in public for a small monthly fee.
“Under this program, subscribers can gain unlimited access to 206 music channels and more than 50,000 songs at a small cost of NT$1,200 (US$40.62) a month,” said CHT Chairman Lu Shyue-ching.
“This new music platform guarantees that subscribers will not infringe on copyright laws. It offers them a one-stop solution in obtaining licenses for the public presentation of music, which can often be a complicated process as it requires permissions from both the composers and recording companies,” said Wang Mei-hua, director-general of the Intellectual Property Office under the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
CHT said this initiative will further encourage local music artists to create more high-quality work and help them secure a greater share in the world’s music market by upholding intellectual property rights and giving the creators reasonable returns.
According to CHT, the company kicked off a similar service with KKBox in 2009. Due to an insufficient variety of songs, however, the service has only attracted a little more than 1,000 subscribers so far.
With this latest development, the company expects to see the number of subscribers grow to as many as 20,000 by the year-end as there are nearly 50,000 registered shops and restaurants around the nation. (HZW)
Write to Audrey Wang at audrey@mail.gio.gov.tw