MySpace announced on Friday that it would be moving into the digital music sector by selling songs from almost 3 million independent bands.
With their current stable of 106 million users and News Corp. (NWS) backing, they have a good chance of doing some real damage in the music download space.
MySpace is planning on charging a distribution fee, and once that is established, the bands will determine what price they'll charge for their music. The music will be sold in non-copyright-protected MP3 format, which almost all digital players are able to interact with.
This is a place where a lot of companies are focusing on, as digital music is by far the quickest-growing area of the music industry. The market is cornered by Apple iTunes (AAPL) now which has over 70 percent of the market in U.S. sales.
MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe said, "The goal is to be one of the biggest digital music stores out there, everyone we've spoken to definitely wants an alternative to iTunes and the iPod. MySpace could be that alternative."
This might be a little hyped as I also know a lot of people that love their iPods. Still everyone likes to be able to look at options and let competition increase the quality of what is being offered out there.
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