MP3.com makes music at US malls

Online music provider MP3.com has set up a unit to provide music to public establishments in the US, such as supermarkets, shopping malls and restaurants.

US retailers select from 424,000 songs and audio files by some 67,000 artists. Subscribers can manage and modify their music selections anytime and anywhere using their private online account page on the MP3 website.

MP3 is an audio data compression format that allows users to send music files over the internet. Retail subscribers could insert house and merchandising advertisements into their music programming.

Bob Simril, vice president of retail music services at MP3, said: "Ad reports can be accessed on the subscriber's statistics page which allows them to assess ad performance at the store level, or throughout the entire chain."

He claimed that such music licensing services would offer subscribers substantial savings and that ad management tools would provide them with control and flexibility not previously available. According to MP3, retail music licensing in the US exceeds $500m annually.

The company did not provide examples of the types of songs it would offer businesses as part of the service.

MP3's main business is providing free downloads of music from unsigned acts. Last month, a US judge ruled that the company was liable for copyright infringement through its My.MP3.com service, which enables users to store their CD tracks on the web and access them by any computer.

Last week TVT Records, a large US independent record label, joined the battle against MP3, alleging violations of copyright law in a lawsuit. TVT accused the company of copyright infringement stemming from My.MP3.com.