MySpace Music Launches, EMI Joins the Party

MySpace Music, the music service formed by the world’s second largest social network and all four of the largest recording companies (as of today), has officially launched, executives from the News Corp.-owned social network said Thursday.

That “as of today” qualifier is because EMI had been the last holdout of the four major labels for quite some time; looks like they got on board at the very last minute.

CNET News said that the service represents the most significant challenge to Apple—at least in terms of firepower—in some time. “This is the first time the top labels have all joined in taking a stake in an iTunes competitor.” (That’s not entirely true, although it could be argued that this is the first time all four labels jumped in right at the outset. The Amazon MP3 Store, Rhapsody, and Napster already had all four major labels on board.)

The site will sell individual, DRM-free MP3 tracks that can be played on mobile phones. The site also offers a streaming music app that lets you compile a playlist of 100 songs for free, but signing up for that means you won’t be able to transfer any of that music to a cell phone.

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