WILL AOL CORNER THE DOWNLOAD MARKET?

MP3-file purveyor EMusic.com has hooked up with online superpower America Onlineto create co-branded Web sites with AOL’s instant-message service, ICQ (a faux-acronym for "I seek you"), the Winamp player and Netcaster Spinner.com.

The AOL deal will bring into play EMusic's growing catalog of licensed tracks, which is now at 90,000-plus, making said catalog available as MP3 files to users of all three AOL services. There are more than 50 million registered ICQ users worldwide.

More to the point, AOL, with its pending Time Warner union (and TW's EMI absorption) and a Bertelsmann pact earlier this week, has already knocked down most of the digital walls between the music majors and looks set to offer a wide array of catalog (not to mention mondo non-music content) legally.

"These new sites will make it even easier for ICQ, Winamp and Spinner users everywhere to discover and listen to new music," said Emusic President/CEO Gene Hoffman. "They should also improve our ranking in the next Barron’s list of Net companies most likely to go in the tank. More coffee, Steve?"