OverDrive Signs Pop Music Label for Downloads

Jennifer Pinkowski -- Library Journal, 06/21/2007

The digital media provider OverDrive has just struck a deal with a forward-looking pop label to make music from chart-topping acts like Barenaked Ladies, Sarah McLachlan, and The Cardigans, available for download at libraries that subscribe to OverDrive’s Digital Library Reserve (DLR) lending collection.

OverDrive has licensed 130 albums from Nettwerk Productions, a 23-year-old Vancouver, BC-based label. John Meadows, Nettwerk’s senior sales director for North America, commented, "Analogously, I own The Catcher in the Rye. But 30 years ago, I read it from borrowing it [from the library]. So conceptually, the same thing can happen with music. It’s the perfect test drive. You can have a 21-day time period to decide whether it’s worth it to spend the $15."

OverDrive has offered downloadable music since 2005; its first offering was classical music from the Naxos Music Library. Since then it has added world music, indie bands, and blues recordings. With the albums from Nettwerk, OverDrive’s music catalog now includes more than 5000 titles. Nettwerk’s move might indicate a growing recognition of the role libraries can play in reaching new audiences, suggested OverDrive CEO Steve Potash.

Still, nothing has changed on the technology front. Only PCs and portable MP3 players that support Windows Media (.wma) can play the music. Because Apple won’t allow a multiple-user licensing agreement, required in a library setting, millions of iPod users remain out in the cold.