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REM will allow users of the site to stream music from its new album, Accelerate, for six days before the official launch of the album on 1 April.

As well as listening to the album through the site, fans will also be able to embed it on their profile pages in other social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

Speaking

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to Billboard, REM says the move reflects a changing industry and system of distribution.

"It was one of those ideas that was presented to us and it seemed like a good one so we ran for it," says REM frontman Michael Stipe. He also notes that that the way people want to access their music "has certainly changed in the last five or ten years. I think you can either go with it or sit back and watch it happen, and I would rather be out on the field than in the bleachers."

REM is the not the first band to experiment with new methods of digital music distribution. Radiohead released its album, In Rainbows, through its own site last year, allowing customers to choose how much they wanted to pay for it.