SAN FRANCISCO - MYSPACE on Thursday is launching a new music service that blends free online radio, community and ways to interact with bands and discover new tunes.

MySpace Music builds on the popular social networking website's strengthening reputation as an online gathering spot for bands both well known and obscure and for the people that love them.

'Music has been a pretty big part of MySpace from the beginning,' senior vice-president of product strategy Steve Pearman told AFP.

'It has really been the heart and soul of the site. We've been figuring out where to go, and part of that is seeing where the music industry is going.'

In what is billed as an initial phase of a MySpace Music evolution, the website features unlimited ad-supported streaming of songs along with tools for creating personalised playlists and buying tunes online from Amazon MP3 store.

Along with being able to listen to music free of charge, digitised songs sold as MP3 can be freely copied or moved between iPods or any other players because they aren't shackled by digital rights management software.

'You can do a real business moving away from locking content in and by setting content free,' Mr Pearman said.

Barriers to copying songs result in 'people buying less music and turning to piracy,' he argued.

MySpace said its partners in the 'landmark joint venture' include EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and The Orchard.

MySpace Music also has software tools to help bands and studios make money from their songs, tours, memorabilia, corporate sponsorships and other 'e-commerce offerings.'

MySpace has proven itself as a vibrant platform for artists to be discovered, promote themselves, and earn livings, according to Mr Pearman.

MySpace Music users can collect as much music as they like and store it 'in the cloud' on the News Corp-owned website's computer servers, meaning they can access the tunes from where ever they wish via the Internet.

People can opt to share playlists with friends on social networking website or to cloak their musical selections from others.

'If I make a really cool workout playlist I might let everyone see that,' Mr Pearman said. 'If I make a Backstreet Boys playlist I might not want everyone to see that.'

MySpace believes people are interested in tuning into the tastes of friends and others they trust to help navigate the rising tide of digital music and other content on the Internet.

'We are up to our ears in user-generated content,' Mr Pearman said. 'Now, we are making the next big shift to user-edited content.'

And while typical recommendation software at Internet radio websites matches people with bands similar to the ones they seem to like, the MySpace Music model taps into friends to discover new tunes.

MySpace says that it is moving beyond Internet radio to create a place online where people can interact with bands and share discoveries with friends while getting 'all you can eat streaming' of music.

'It's hard to build community around content,' Mr Pearman said, comparing MySpace Music to online radio. 'It is much more straightforward to inject content into community and that is the path we are going down.'

After its US launch on Thursday, MySpace Music is to expand internationally. The website is to be available in Spanish as well as English.