appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

liveArticle

appConfig

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sectionsV2

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

json

Vivienne Chow

The operator of Hong Kong's only website to offer legal music downloads is surprised by the demand for Canto-pop tunes and is expanding business. 
Canto-pop songs are the most popular of the 150,000 songs offered by www.eolasia.com, said Alan Choy Yuk-pong,  chief operating officer of I-Content, which launched the site three weeks ago.
'It wasn't what we expected,' Mr Choy said. 'We thought people were more willing to pay to download international hits rather than local songs, plus there are so many free illegal channels to download the latest Canto-pop releases.
'This is very encouraging. It shows that people are willing to pay for music. We believe the market will continue to pick up.'
He would not say how many songs had been downloaded so far, but insisted the volume was satisfactory. 
Apart from music downloads, the website would provide more international music news and reviews, hopefully leading to an online music magazine, he said.
'Local music critic Fung Lai-chi  will contribute music critiques to our website. We will also run articles on the international music scene. We won't have gossip.  It will be purely music-oriented, which is our direction.'
The website carried songs mainly from Sony BMG, Warner and EMI, and negotiations were continuing with Universal Music, Mr Choy said.
'We are hoping to incorporate songs by independent bands and musicians as well, so as to provide a wider variety of music,' he said.
The website offers the songs in Microsoft's WMA format with digital rights management,  which prevents users copying the files onto other computers. 
But they can still burn the files onto CDs or transfer them to portable music players. Mr Choy said they  had received many inquiries about the decision to use  the WMA format instead of the popular  MP3 format.  
He said WMA was the most widely adopted format for legal music websites and digital rights management  protected the songs' copyright.
'It is the mainstream in America and Europe. Plus new models of MP3 players by major manufacturers such as Samsung and Creative support WMA files,' he said.
But Apple's popular portable music device, the i-Pod, does not support WMA. 'But you can burn the files onto a CD and transfer them onto an i-Pod,' he said.



Website warms up for next act after Canto hit