AT&T, Three Others to Develop Music Downloading System

AT&T, BMG Entertainment, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Universal Music Group have teamed up to develop and test technology for large-scale, secure music and media distribution.

The companies said the open technology would provide consumers with an easy way to obtain and play music in digital formats, complete with related programming such as graphics, video, lyrics and links to Web sites. The technology would also allow storage and retrieval of media on personal computers, digital videodiscs and other music playback devices.