Spain risks record industry ire with music download service

A new all-you-can-eat music download service that claims to take advantage of a loophole in Spanish copyright law is to launch today and will piggyback on a popular file-swapping network for distribution.

The new Madrid-based company, called Puretunes, is the second Spanish web service to try offering access to a vast and otherwise unavailable catalogue of music online without directly securing the record labels' permission.

The company's predecessor, WebListen.com, is still operating despite having been repeatedly sued by European record labels. Puretunes, with a US-based publicity agent, appears to be focusing more heavily on the English-speaking world, however. Each claims to be legal and says it will compensate labels and artists for distribution of their works.

Javier Siguenza, Puretunes general counsel, said in a statement: "It is evident by the enormous popularity of P2P and supporting MP3 players that the consumers are demanding their music digitally. Puretunes has pioneered a product that allows consumers to get the music they want digitally, without restriction, while compensating the rights holders for their works."

Whatever its controversial legal status, Puretunes' emergence is part of a quickly growing resurgence of interest in creative ways to bring digital music to consumers worldwide.

Apple Computer's launch of its iTunes 99-cent store late last month has rekindled optimism in the pay-by-the-download model. Roxio's surprise $39.5m purchase Monday of Pressplay, the major-label owned music subscription service, added fuel to the growing fire.

In an apparent bid for publicity - and in what will certainly spark record companies' ire further - Puretunes' first affiliate distributor is Grokster, the file-swapping software company that recently won a clean legal bill of health from a Los Angeles federal judge.