In a bid to make inroads into the digital music business, MySpace has decided to sell songs from almost 3 million unsigned bands.

The idea behind the initiative is to give Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes Music Store a run for the money. The biggest advantage MySpace has got in this rivalry is its extensive user base. The online dating site from News Corp has got 106 million users.


“The goal is to be one of the biggest digital music stores out there,” Reuters quotes MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe as saying. “Everyone we’ve spoken to definitely wants an alternative to iTunes and the iPod. MySpace could be that alternative.”

According to the Reuters report, songs will be available on the bands’ MySpace pages and on fan pages. The songs come with a non-copy-protected MP3 digital file format. Most digital players including Apple's market-dominating iPod will be able to play the songs, claims MySpace.

The bands will have total control when it comes to charging per song after including MySpace’s distribution fee. Snocap will be managing the e-commerce service. Meanwhile, Rusty Rueff, the chief executive of Snocap, says that no decision has yet been taken on a distribution fee.

MySpace.com has become quite popular among U.S. Web users for socializing and sharing music and photographs. On the other hand, digital music is the fastest-growing sector of the record industry. MySpace.com aims to break the monopoly of iTunes banking on its rising popularity.

--------

Niladri Sekhar Nath is a contributing writer for TMCnet covering telecommunications, service providers and networking.