Tuesday, September 05, 2006

There's a lot of buzz of late about new iTunes competitors that aim to change how you download music for portable devices. Haven't heard it? Turn down your iPod.

MySpace is announcing a partnership with digital music service Snocap that will let artists sell music directly to consumers through their MySpace pages. Buyers will then be able to transfer songs to any music player, including Apple's (AAPL) iPod.

The arrivals are flocking to an already crowded market dominated by Apple's iTunes, which controls 70% to 85% of legal digital music in the U.S., depending on the estimate. The market generated $400 million in 2005 and is expected to reach $14 billion by 2011, according to Britain-based Jupiter Research.

What sets apart this fresh crop of download upstarts? One way or another, they're all departing from the pay-per-song business model that iTunes has mastered.