MySpace planning free music service

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 20 Feb 2008 at 09:28

MySpace is working on a service that would offer free music, supported by advertising, according to the Financial Times.

The service would allow users to stream tracks, with advertising on the site providing income for MySpace. Users may also be able to pay to download tracks they wish to hear offline.

The social networking site has already approached the four major music labels to discuss the deal, although sources claim that talks are still in the preliminary stages.

MySpace was sued by one of these four companies, Universal, in 2006. The label claimed that songs and videos posted to user's profiles represented copyright infringement, and the case has yet to be resolved.

A similar service called Qtrax was announced last month, which claimed to offer free tracks for download from all four major record companies. However, news soon emerged that the company had in fact not signed deals with three of those labels.

MySpace was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.