Myspace launches music service

Social network Myspace has launched its Myspace Music service in the UK.

The website, which has been losing as rivals such as Facebook pick up more users, said the new service would see it "leapfrog the competition and become the the most comprehensive catalogue of audio tracks and music videos available on the web".

However, rivals have criticised its download service, claiming that files bought via Myspace are of a lower quality and less compatible than the MP3 files available elsewhere.

The Myspace Music service, which has been available in the US for some time, allows users to stream songs via their web browser. Songs can be added to playlists, while links allow some tracks to be downloaded via Apple's iTunes store.

However, like all downloads from iTunes, these songs are stored as AAC files. Although AAC files can be played on many portable players, they are not as well supported as the MP3 files sold by rival services.

"The link to download tracks via iTunes does not offer consumers the best deal for purchasing digital music," said Ben Drury, CEO of rival download service 7Digital. "It is unfortunate that they are not allowing their customers to choose MP3".

Mr Drury also claimed that the files sold by his firm using were of a higher audio quality than those from iTunes.

Despite early popularity in the social networking market, Myspace has lost ground to its rivals in recent years. In 2006 market research firm Comscore reported that it had over three times as many unique visitors as Facebook, but research earlier this year showed Facebook with 236 million users and Myspace lagging behind with 126 million.