The Financial Times reported today that EMI is working on its own portal through which it can sell music and video content directly to consumers. Some aspects of the site will be free. The launch is expected before Christmas.

Many people are probably joining me in wondering what EMI knows that nobody else knows. Consumers prefer to shop at digital stores with broad catalogs. This is the age of the Wal-Mart superstore, not the corner grocery store. "I am not quite sure what EMI will get for the money they have spent on it," one executive told the Financial Times.

This is all just speculation at this point, but the site could go a few different ways. It could be a place to launch new artists. It could have exclusive content that would give consumers a reason to visit. Or it could be positioned as an alternative to existing stores. The latter model assumes consumers are indifferent about where they stream and purchase music -- they're not -- and would put EMI in a role record labels have historically not played very well.

Update: Alley Insider's Peter Kafka says the plan is not for a portal but for a "digital sandbox" or "laboratory," according to his sources. Billboard.biz's source said it will be a "consumer lab." By considering it -- at least publicly -- more a learning experience than a full-fledged store, EMI is obviously downplaying the goal of the initiative. Maybe they'll learn something new about consumers, or maybe they'll collect a lot of email addresses, but I agree with Kafka that this is an odd time for tinkering. My gut tells me EMI, like so many others, is hell bent on finding a way to keep the 30% it gives retailers like iTunes and hopes a digital sandbox will reveal the answer.

[music jobs] The Beggars Group & Matador Records is seeking a Paralegal