eBay to sell music downloads online - cautiously

Online auction giant eBay has decided that as well as selling music on traditional physical formats, there's room for it to sell digital downloads too.

With Apple selling its 100 millionth download this week, there's no doubt the online music market is booming - but with new stores seemingly launching every week, is there room for another player?

It's a doubt that may be figuring in eBay's thinking, because the download selling will be initially run as a three-month pilot with a group of pre-approved sellers, including one record label, to see if there's a demand for the service.

eBay watchdogs will also keep track of the products being bought and sold to make sure record labels' copyright isn't being infringed. The decision to allow the sale of digital music is a turnaround for the virtual auctioneer - digital downloads had been banned, along with corpses and drugs, due to fears it would become a trading shop for illegal goods.

Trading in other downloads - software and e-books, for example - is still prohibited on the site.

The pilot will only run on ebay.com - the auctioneer's other foreign properties won't offer the service at present.