"Some of the Functions Have Moved to New York"

"Some of the functions have moved to New York," said Danny Stein, CEO of eMusic, explaining why half of the local staff of eMusic will be moving to the other coast by the end of the year. Currently, he says about 25 people work at the eMusic offices in Sorrento Valley. "We have offices in New York and San Diego."

The company has not officially released any information about the move.

Its website, www.eMusic.com, says it delivers more than one million downloads a month, offering selections from a library of 500,000 tracks from major and independent labels. A subscription starts at $9.99 per month for 40 downloads.

Once housed in the same building as MP3.com, some of the MP3.com employees went with eMusic when eMusic was sold in October 2003 to Dimensional Associates, Inc., of New York.

While declining to get specific, Stein said some of the jobs that are being relocated to New York include "marketing folks and technical folks." He said those staying in San Diego include those who work in "music licensing, some executive leadership, and some technical folks. The owners [of eMusic] live in New York. The center of gravity has always been in New York." He said the change will result in no net loss in jobs.

Stein said plans are now for eMusic to remain in the same Sorrento Valley facility. "Hopefully the positive business climate will continue so we can maintain two offices."

Plans are even less clear regarding the other major local Internet music service, Musicmatch, Inc., which was officially swallowed by Yahoo! on October 18.

Musicmatch employs about 160 people at its Rancho Bernardo location, said Musicmatch public relations manager Jason Klein. When Klein was asked if the seven-year-old Internet music service would be moving any employees out of San Diego, he said, "I have no comment." When asked if any employees were guaranteed employment, he said, "No comment."

After being dormant for five months, MP3.com reemerged on the Web in May under new owners: CNET Networks. The company is based in New York.