By David Farrier
With the launch of a new music service in New Zealand by MySpace, Kiwis now have yet another way to get their music online.
The services allows users to listen to bands like Midnight Youth for free, along with others ranging from Michael Jackson to groups you've probably never heard of.
MySpace Music streams the music in a similar way to YouTube. And it's all free because it's paid for by advertising on the website.
"On demand streaming is not new, its been around," says Damian Vaughan from NZMusic.org.nz. "But services are getting better, there are more applications and this all makes it more attractive."
Slowly more people are opting to get their music in digital form - an encouraging sign for troubled music industry.
This year approximately 85 percent of music sales involved physical CD's, while the remaining 15 percent involved digital sales.
And while digital sales are on the rise, they're not rising quickly enough to meet the drop-off in physical sales. And some New Zealanders are being put off by other practical costs involved in the digital world, such as the cost of streaming on mobile phones.
But the service's survival online may be difficult. Considering that essentially everything on the internet is available for free - often illegally - it is just matter of convincing people to stay within the law and pay.
3 News