After nearly 90 years on the high street, HMV is to add a digital element to its music retailing with the opening of a new online MP3 store.

The service, HMVdigital, will be powered by digital specialist 7digital, who HMV bought a 50 per cent share of last year for £7.7 million.

The service will work with both PCs and Macs, its software will sync with your iTunes or Windows Media Player, and HMV will hope that it is able to rival the likes of Amazon and Apple in the digital music arena.

The service is due to launch in August and there will be bargains a plenty when it first goes live. The top 40 singles will all be available for 40p and albums will start from £4.99. There will also be a featured artist of the month, starting with Eminem, where their material will be discounted.

“We are delighted to launch a world class download store that reflects both HMV's music retailing heritage and our strategy to be a broad-based entertainment brand”, said Sarah Hughes, HMV’s head of online and digital.

“Our partners at 7digital have built for us a significantly improved new site that looks great and has never been easier to use. With so many innovative and wonderful features, it offers a truly intuitive and engaging customer experience that I very much hope will lead to HMV becoming a bigger player in the burgeoning digital market”.

Are you a digital downloader (in the legit way)? If so, what service do you currently use and do you think you'll give HMV a try? Let us know the usual way.

• See also - Fairsharemusic - legal and ethical musical downloading

Via: mcvuk.com

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