CHICAGO (MarketWatch) - AOL on Tuesday launched an expanded version of its online music service that offers unlimited downloads of music videos for a subscription fee, as well as more than 200 new radio stations including several from XM Satellite Radio.
The initiative represents another step in the Time Warner-owned subsidiary's attempt to transform itself from an access provider to a full-service entertainment destination driven by the AOL.com portal. Dick Parsons, chairman of Time Warner
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, has pointed to an AOL turnaround as the key to lifting the parent's stock price out of the $16-to-$19 trading range it's been mired in over the past two years.
AOL Music Now will allow users to download music from a library of more than 2.5 million audio tracks, as well as thousands of music videos. Among the programs available on the channels supplied by XM Satellite
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will be music legend Bob Dylan's weekly program, "Theme Time Radio Hour."
Subscription fees are $4.95 for AOL Radio With XM, and $9.95 per month for unlimited, on-demand streaming and downloading of songs and videos. AOL Music Now is the first online service to offer videos on a subscription basis, rather than as pay-per-download.
If users want to be able to download content to "PlaysForSure" compatible music devices, the monthly subscription fee is $14.95. In conjunction with the launch of AOL Music Now, the service has partnered with Creative Labs
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to offer its members $50 off the purchase price of the ZEN Vision:M 30GB video player, photo viewer and MP3 player.
Last week, AOL announced that it would offer full-length, downloadable movies from Twentieth Century Fox, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros.
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In July, it launched 45 on-demand channels on AOL Video, including content from such cable networks as Nickelodeon, A&E and MTV, as well as content generated by users.
Time Warner's shares rose 9 cents to close at $16.53.
David B. Wilkerson is a reporter for MarketWatch in Chicago.