Popular social networking site Facebook and internet giants Google have announced plans to sell music via their web services. The Facebook model allows US users to pay 10 cents to send friends a song that can only be listened to online, or 90 cents to send a copy that can be downloaded. Meanwhile, US Google searches that lead to music will contain links to
Lala and
iLike, the music streaming services owned by the
MySpace social network (precided-over by Rupert Murdoch's News Group). Lala users here can listen to a song once for free, or download it for $1.
Both services are set to go head to head with
Spotify which, although it is only currently available in Europe, has already attracted 5.5 million users. Spotify allows free streaming of full albums, with listening interrupted intermittently by adverts. An optional monthly subscription service, Spotify Premium, allows users enjoy music with absolutely no adverts, and on their
iPhone or Google's android operating system. US users can sign up to Spotify via invite, though many in the states have been using proxies to bypass this rule.
