EMI Group, home to such acts as Janet Jackson and the Beatles, has become the latest music giant to invest in a technology company, after buying a minority stake in Roxio, whose software allows people to record music on blank compact disks.
Terms were not disclosed, but sources said EMI made a small investment - far below $50 million - in Roxio.
EMI's investment in Roxio differs from other recent partnerships in the music sector because it marks the first time a big label is backing a company to develop ways for fans to 'burn' music onto CDs in an effort to drive up revenues.
All of the online initiatives announced so far by the big recording companies in their rush to compete with song-swap service Napster have involved streaming or limited downloading onto computer hard drives.
Meanwhile, demand for blank CDs has exploded as people have increasingly created their own CDs with content obtained from services like Napster.
The Roxio/EMI deal follows a string of acquisitions of smaller technology companies by big music labels, including Bertelsmann AG's purchase of song-storage company Myplay and Vivendi Universal's purchases of MP3.com and Emusic.com.
