CNET’s Download.com launched a free, legal music
downloading service that enables users to download music from participating artists
without spending a cent.
http://music.download.com went live yesterday
on download.com, one of the most visited sites for legal, software downloads.
The site is live with basic functionality that allows users to browser, find,
download and listen to music from an initial collection of thousands of songs.
As the song catalog grows, the website will undergo
development to introduce community and technology features to make the site
more functional.
"While commercial music services have proliferated,
we are the first large-scale provider to offer free music downloads in a discovery-focused
environment, saving music fans valuable time in finding tunes that match their
tastes," said Scott Arpajian, senior vice president of CNET Download.com.
"Our goal is to provide music fans free digital fuel for their devices,
and exposure to original artists and songs that can become their new favorites."
CNET seems to have a winning formula for fans
seeking to download. On a monthly basis, users download over 75 million software
files from over 30,000 offerings.
CNET is banking on the site to do well in the
downloaded music section, based on the fact that their "Audio and Video"
software category consistently ranks as the number one downloading category
on their entire site.
One of the first acts to be featured as an "Editors
Pick" is U.K. Hip-Hop group Lyrical Darkness, who count among their lyrical
influences Canibus, Ras Kass, Chino XL, Tonedeff and Cypress Hill.
The company also acquired the MP3.com domain
name after the company was snapped up and shut down by Universal and will also
relaunch the site in the coming months.
All genres of music are represented on the artist
friendly site. For more information visit http://music.download.com.
