After an 18-month delay, three of the four music majors have now reached an agreement with MySpace to launch a music download site. The New York Times says:
As part of the deal, MySpace will spin out its popular MySpace Music service as an independent joint venture in partnership with Universal Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group. EMI, the fourth major label, is not a part of the deal at this time, but people involved in the negotiations said it would probably join soon. The music companies will own minority stakes in the venture and will make their entire music catalogs available.
Chris DeWolfe, chief executive of MySpace, a division of News Corporation, described the new service, which will be introduced later this year, as a one-stop source for all music, in all its various digital incarnations.
Streaming music will be ad-supported and therefore free. Downloads will be paid for but at least they will, like Amazon's, be DRM-free. A subscription service "is also being considered, Mr DeWolfe said".
Many news sites have much the same story, but the Dow Jones newswire has a longer one.
