News 

The Wall Street Journal reports that the company has been in talks with record labels about licensing music for a store offering both downloads sales and a subscription service.

It has also had discussions with MusicNet, a provider of music store infrastructures for a number of retailers. Amazon hope to launch before the end of the year.

The company declined to comment.

Any digital venture would face considerable hurdles, not least the presence of several established store such as iTunes, Napster and Reals' Rhapsody. However Amazon has little choice as CD sales decline relative to the growth of downloads. It also hopes that by offering digital content it will be able to continue to attract music buyers to the other areas of its website.