It comes as no surprise that all over the world (in the U.S. particularly) CD and album sales are spiraling downwards, as pirating files has become the cheapest, most successful leisure activity. Some singers and bands, such as Jamiroquai and Radiohead, have adapted to this online trend and have let their fans pick a price for which they would buy their album, the lowest price available being $0. This publicity stunt has earned them undying respect and appreciation from their current admirers and enlarged their fan base.

It seems now that record labels have also jumped on the downloading wagon. Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, EMI, independent music distributor the Orchard and Sony ATV, which owns the rights to the Beatles songs, have signed a deal with the world’s largest social networking platform, MySpace.

On the one hand, it seems like MySpace Music was created to compete with Apple’s iTunes. On the other hand, many have said that MySpace wishes to compete with piracy, and not with the Apple client, as MySpace’s target group is also the one most attracted to free downloading. Music is a cardinal element of MySpace, and is especially useful to fresh bands who want to make themselves heard.

The deal between MySpace and the record labels entails that singers will provide playlists for the users, while users can also make their own playlists. The “eye-candy” part is that you can listen to your playlists for free. The playlists can have up to 100 songs, but you can create an unlimited number of playlists. If you want to buy the music, however, you have Amazon.com a click away.

This feature is also supported by advertisers, such as McDonald's, Sony Pictures, State Farm and Toyota. MySpace - although invincible so far - needs a boost, as Facebook has exceeded its popularity for a short while, in April.