New Partnership Between PGA and SonyBMG Lets Newspaper Sites Post Music Clips, Interviews

By: E&P Staff The Publishing Group of America has announced a new partnership with Sony BMG that will let the Web sites of local newspapers post clips of new music releases, as well as album liner notes and interviews with the recording artists.

Under the agreement, the record company will provide digital files to the PGA, timed to coincide with the general release of the album. PGA will pass these files on to newspaper sites around the country, along with music player software that will enable the sites to play the audio files. The service will be offered for free to newspapers that carry the PGA magazines American Profile and Relish.

The partnership is set to start this Winter, with SonyBMG providing music and interviews around Alan Jackson?s new album "Like Red On A Rose," Alabama's "Songs of Inspiration," and Brad Paisley's "Brad Paisley Christmas." Following the holiday season, PGA will regularly syndicate additional SonyBMG music and content.

"We?re providing audio that local newspaper websites are not well positioned to create for themselves,? said Dick Porter, CEO of PGA in a statement. "It's a partner service for us and a potential boost for the record label. Our intent is to build a large enough base to make the network available for sponsorship by national advertisers, potentially bringing incremental revenue to our publishing partners on a revenue-share basis.?

An example of the content being made available to PGA newspapers (from the group Alabama) can be found by clicking here. This provides one audio file and a write-up about the album. Other content to be syndicated in the future will have multiple music tracks, previews of entire albums, and artist interviews.