Social networking site MySpace has launched a new music section that allows users to listen to millions of songs for free.
The advertising-supported format by one of the most popular sites on the internet could present the most serious challenge yet to the ubiquity of illegally downloaded music and to the dominance of Apple's iTunes store in supplying legal music to fans.
The site called MySpaceMusic is supported by the world's four major music labels, Sony BMG, Universal Music, EMI and Warner Music.
It allows MySpace's 120 million users to search for a song by title, artists or album, select a track to add it to a playlist, and listen to it using an online music player that features ads. Users can also share their playlists with friends who can then listen to exactly the same songs.
The free tracks cannot be downloaded onto any device. But the player links to Amazon.com's music store, where users can purchase them for download. The service launches with several hundred thousand songs available but hopes to ramp up to more than the 8.5 million songs offered by iTunes.
The new site is expected to give MySpace a boost in its bid to catch up with Facebook, which overtook it this year as the world's most popular social networking site. Record companies also see the venture as a key strategy to recoup the revenue lost from declining CD sales, which have plunged from an estimated $US12 billion ($A14.42 billion) in 1999 to a projected $US5 billion ($A6.01 billion) this year.
"Warner Music Group is very pleased to be entering into this groundbreaking joint venture," said Edgar Bronfman Jr, Warner Music Group's chairman and chief executive officer.
"This venture may provide a defining blueprint for this next important stage in the evolution of social media, benefiting consumers, artists and music companies alike," he said.
The music labels own 40 per cent of the new venture and are discounting the licensing fees that News Corp, the owner of MySpace and majority owner of MySpace Music, must pay for each song that is streamed. McDonald's Corp, State Farm Insurance, Toyota Motor Corp and Sony Pictures are sponsoring the music service's launch.
