GristyMcFisty reports us that according to this article over at The Register, America Online (AOL) Europe is planning to launch the second music download service backbone in Europe. The service will include an online radio station and pricing of the music tracks will be akin to Apple iTunes, which is to be launched this week:

The plans were revealed in an interview with Reuters, and the service would be the first that does not rely on the backbone delivery network run by OD2 which drives the EMI, Microsoft and all other services launched so far. That network has the rights to about 200,000 songs and AOL plans to have rights to a similar number by launch and is negotiating with record labels and collections bodies now. Previously European music providers have been loathe to offer their songs through online delivery, stubbornly resisting online services due to concerns about illegal downloading. But EMI broke the logjam when it launched its own service through about 20 etailers, with delivery and digital rights managed by OD2. As a lead up to the online music service, AOL launched Radio@AOL Broadband yesterday as a free radio service.

Music downloading services are hot, real hot. It's too bad that we haven't seen any real competition when it comes to the pricing of downloading music. Almost every new music downloading service seems to be following the pricing that is used at existing services. When the services start competing in this area it will become more interesting methinks.

Source: The Register