Shopfar.com - Shopping Portal Offers New Way to Get Free, Legal Music Downloads

Shopfar.com - Shopping Portal Offers New Way to Get Free, Legal Music Downloads

LONDON, September 8/PRNewswire/ -- Shopfar.com is the first shopping portal to reward its users with free, legal music downloads, thanks to a collaboration between Karma Collective Ltd. and Apple's iTunes Music Store, the world's largest and most popular legal music download centre.

Shopfar.com users automatically earn free iTunes song codes as they shop on any of the portal's hundreds of different shopping sites, which include Expedia, Figleaves, eBay, Boots and HMV.

These song codes can be redeemed for music downloads at Apple's iTunes Music Store from a choice of over 1.2 million songs from both major and independent labels (available for PC and Mac). There is no limit to the number of songs that can be earned through Shopfar.com. And by taking advantage of the Shopfar Invitation Programme, users can greatly increase their earnings every month by receiving one song for every two earned by an unlimited number of invited friends.

Shopfar.com could not launch at a better time. The spectacular rise of online consumerism has meant that Internet shopping and music downloading stories continue to sweep the headlines as their popularity increases.

Thanks to the success of the iPod and the user-friendliness of Apple's iTunes Music Store, the market for music downloads has skyrocketed. In fact, over just the last year legal music downloads rose a staggering 900%(i). Digital tracks, which have had a separate chart since September 2004, have recently been included in the traditional Top 40 Singles Chart and already account for half of the combined sales.

While legal downloading is on the rise, the prevalence of illegal music file-sharing is still a major concern. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) launched their bid to clamp down on illegal downloading in October 2004 and have already successfully prosecuted a number of illegal file-sharers. Nevertheless, the latest reports continue to show an increase in online piracy with an estimated 900 million tracks still available on file-sharing networks(i).

Until now, music downloads were either free or legal. With Shopfar.com they're both.

(i). The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI)

Source: Shopfar.com

UK: For further information, please contact Jay Feeney: jay.feeney@shopfar.com / +44(0)771-433-9572; US: For further information, please contact Isabelle Libmann: isabelle.libmann@shopfar.com / +1-312-497-8999

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