The three companies involved with MySpace Music are Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music group. Major label EMI is not currently involved, and financial terms were not disclosed.

"360-Degree" Music Store

MySpace said the new site will create a "fully integrated, 360-degree global music solution." There will be e-commerce and, as you might expect from the world's largest social network , tools to enhance a user's ability to discover, share, socialize and manage around music. The site will roll out in phases over the next few months.

Digital downloads will be free of digital rights management (DRM) and playable on any device, including Apple's iPods. There will also be ad-supported audio and video streaming, a mobile storefront, mobile ringtones, artist wallpaper, concert tickets, and artist T-shirts.

In ways yet to be detailed, the site will also offer integration with its more than 5 million music-artist profile pages. MySpace's growth has been propelled in part by pages from small music bands. Users will also be able to create playlists and buy and search for music from their own pages.

MySpace Music builds on the site's current music channel, which has nearly 30 million unique monthly visitors. MySpace previously launched Snocap to provide a download service for independent music, but that effort has reportedly been a disappointment.

Joins Amazon in iTunes Challenge

This new experiment in connecting a major social-networking community with major music companies shows a welcome willingness by the music industry to try multiple models, said Mike McGuire, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner. He predicted there will be more such ventures -- although he lamented that this kind of industry experimentation did not occur several years ago.

The new music site could "in theory" be another major competitor to Apple's iTunes Store, McGuire noted. In particular, it will join Amazon as a major industry-based music site that could challenge the online dominance of iTunes.

Last fall, Amazon got bigger as the self-described "Earth's biggest store" launched Amazon MP3, with DRM-free music downloads and more than 2 million songs. Those downloads also play on any device, and were generally priced lower than iTunes' songs.

Some observers have predicted that song sales could become a commodity, where consumers decide where to buy a song based primarily on price, but MySpace could add the value of a social community.

McGuire noted several outstanding questions about the viability of the MySpace environment for a music store. "On paper, they have some attributes that look very powerful," he said. "But can they create a compelling experience for this crowd, and will their community pay for music or just listen to ad-supported streaming?"