Reknown UK dance label and venue group Ministry of Sound has announced the re-lauch of a new transactional website that now offers music downloads, club tickets, CDs and merchandise.

Presumeably, the new site will be skinned for ther MOS sub-labels including Hed Kandi, Global Underground, Euphorial and Hard2beat in the near future.

MOS has made this move in order to gain fuller control of their relationships with fans and suppliers. They have also removed 3rd party advertisement banners on the site in order to improve user experience.

While this does not preclude MOS from selling tracks on all the major online stores (iTunes, 7Digital, Amazon Music et al), it will be interesting to see what other labels are inspired to take the e-commerce plunge in their wake.

Indeed, the majors and major indies could learn a valuable lesson here, and take a similar approach with their sub-label sites, using a single e-commerce engine to power a multitude of skinned sites. This could provide an interesting alternative to the big online stores and really test the pulling power of their brands in the digital marketplace. In a closely releated subject, the major’s and online branding was covered in a recent TMV post (EMI.Com & the Demise of The Major Brands).

With popular tracks on the new MOS website costing 79p, some 10%+ less that iTunes, MOS might even be helping to drop the “Misery of Pounds” tag that has occasionally been directed towards their nightclub venues.

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