Today, we generally shop for music in very different ways than we did 20 years ago.  Fewer consumers than ever go to “brick-and-mortar” stores to listen to music that must be purchased on hard media (tapes, CDs, DVDs).  A large portion of the consumer base now goes to Apple Inc’s iTunes (Etilities Forum) or Napster (Etilities Forum) to buy their favorite songs and albums in digital format.

The already popular social networking site MySpace has just launched its own digital music service, which lets you listen to songs for “free” (meaning you’ll be bombarded with ads) or for purchase.  This service operates through a partnership with Amazon, which is itself no stranger to the industry, as they sell music in both hard media and DRM-free digital download formats.

Backed by all the major labels, MySpace is hoping to pick up some of the market that is right now largely dominated by Apple. Given its already large user base and its reputation for helping upcoming artists gain popularity, it seems very well placed to do so.

Regardless of whether or not MySpace is successful in gaining significant market share in the digital music space, this is a nice step in the direction of media being universally accessible in the cloud, ever more cheaply.

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