Credit: Thinkstock MySpace, the uber-popular social networking site, on Tuesday began selling downloads of music produced by unsigned bands, and the downloaded songs don’t include any digital rights management technologies to prevent them from being played on certain computers or music players—a feature that music enthusiasts have blasted Apple Computer for including on selections obtained from its U.S. market-leading iTunes Music Store, USA Today reports.The announcement comes about a week before Apple is expected to announce a number of new products and services, including its next-generation iPod nano and the addition of movie downloads to its iTunes service.According to a July research report by market analyst Hitwise, MySpace topped Yahoo’s e-mail portal in page views for the first time during the week ending July 8, 2006. Over the past few years, Yahoo has held the title of most visited page in the United States—and its combined network of Web locales still tops MySpace.com—but the popular social networking site is clearly giving it a run for its money. Countless music services have challenged Apple in the download space, and none successfully carved itself a significant piece of the digital download pie, but with a monthly user base of 50 million visitors, according to USA Today, MySpace could prove to be a serious contender.Chris DeWolfe, MySpace chief executive, aims to morph his site into the largest digital music store on the Web, according to USA Today. “We’re the biggest music site now. Converting to the biggest music store would be a natural progression,” DeWolfe said, according to USA Today.Snocap will provide the technology for MySpace to sell music, and the tools it provides will enable users to employ their own e-mail accounts, websites or blogs to help sell content via the service, USA Today reports. Currently, artists or record labels interested in selling content on iTunes need to undergo tedious processes, but they’d need only register on Snocap’s website to get started with the MySpace service, according to USA Today. Once users have registered and their songs have been uploaded to the Snocap system, they’re provided tools to help build the appropriate computer code into their websites or blogs to sell their music, USA Today reports.Snocap and MySpace will take 45 cents from each purchase made via the service, and song prices are to be set by the specific artists or vendors, according to USA Today.In related news, SpiralFrog, an advertising-based music download service expected to launch in late 2006, said this week that it has expanded its music catalog with a new deal under which it will offer EMI music for free download. Just last week, SpiralFrog announced a similar deal with Universal to offer its music content for free.Related Links: Report: MySpace Tops Yahoo in U.S. Page Views SpiralFrog, EMI to Team in Music Catalog Pact SpiralFrog, Universal to Offer Free Music DownloadsCheck out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content brandpost Sponsored by BMC BMC on BMC: How the company enables IT observability with BMC Helix and AIOps The goals: transform an ocean of data and ultimately provide a stellar user experience and maximum value. By Jeff Miller Dec 07, 2023 3 mins IT Leadership brandpost Sponsored by BMC The data deluge: The need for IT Operations observability and strategies for achieving it BMC Helix brings thousands of data points together to create a holistic view of the health of a service. By Jeff Miller Dec 07, 2023 4 mins IT Leadership how-to How to create an effective business continuity plan A business continuity plan outlines procedures and instructions an organization must follow in the face of disaster, whether fire, flood, or cyberattack. Here’s how to create a plan that gives your business the best chance of surviving such an By Mary K. Pratt, Ed Tittel, Kim Lindros Dec 07, 2023 11 mins Small and Medium Business IT Skills Backup and Recovery interview WestRock CIDO Amir Kazmi on building resiliency Multidimensional resiliency is vital to setting yourself, your teams, and your organization up for success. Kazmi sets the tone at WestRock by recognizing the pace of change, instilling a learning and growth mindset, and being transparent with his te By Dan Roberts Dec 07, 2023 8 mins IT Strategy Staff Management IT Leadership Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe