Music giants launch internet services for Christmas market

An internet music service designed by record companies to counter "pirate" websites by offering for a flat fee recordings of top musicians will be online within 60 days, it announced yesterday.

MusicNet, which is backed by labels including EMI and the world's biggest media company, AOL Time Warner, will allow users to download from a bank of thousands of tracks for about £7 a month. The new venture is among a series of "official" alternatives aimed at crushing the free music-swap websites pioneered by Napster, which was forced to close down by record companies after a copyright dispute.

The service is one of at least three expected to be launched in time for a Christmas sales battle as big labels and software firms seek to dominate the new paid-for format.

MusicNet will have access to performers including Robbie Williams and the Corrs as well as a vast back catalogue of classical music and jazz.

But it will face competition from Pressplay, jointly owned by Sony and Vivendi-Universal, a French media conglomerate, and OD2, which has joined forces with the singer Peter Gabriel's label.

Sony and Universal boast artists from Aerosmith to Placido Domingo, Mariah Carey to Julio Iglesias. OD2 is already offering acts including Craig David and Moby from independent music companies.

Richard Wolpert, MusicNet's head of strategy, confirmed the plans to launch by Christmas but admitted the company faced difficulties persuading web-users to pay for something that was previously free through Napster.

He said: "Free and unlimited is a difficult thing to compete with. But I think we are offering things that consumers will like. We are in this business for the long run – this is a marathon, not a sprint."

MusicNet, whose labels also include Warner and the German giant BMG, is considering charging £7 a month for 50 downloads from a bank of 100,000 tracks.

The new music-swap sites, which are also about to be joined by a paid-for version of Napster, will allow tracks to be played only on a subscriber's computer or portable device.

Encoding technology means the music will expire and be deleted after a month, although users will have the option to buy a permanent digital copy of a song or album.

But experts remain sceptical. One analyst said: "People are likely to use the sites to try songs out but, when you're asking them to pay something like £80 a year for each service and they can still just go out and buy a CD, it's difficult to see fans rushing to sign up."