Yesterday, MySpace Music announced details regarding music service (which is expected to launch in the next few weeks), most notably, that the service will rely almost completely on ad revenues:

The offering will include "brand sponsored album releases where albums will be available for free download sponsored by a brand, other free download opportunities, unlimited streaming and unlimited custom playlisting powered by brands in different ways," according to MySpace president of sales and marketing Jeff Berman.

The basic idea seems to be to apply free music ideas pioneered by start-ups to an environment that is partially owned by the labels, so that the labels stand to gain instead of sue.

But the corporate involvement doesn’t end there, as the service will allow companies to sponsor free downloads of songs that will feature advertisements instead of album art.

MySpace Music won’t rely entirely on ads however—the songs featured on the page will feature jumps to Amazon and iTunes, giving MySpace a small cut of any songs bought through those sites via MySpace.

Indie bands will likely face impossible odds to be featured on the service (or make any money from it), mostly because MySpace is linked up only with the Sony, Universal, and Warner Brothers, and only bands on those labels will get a cut of revenue.  

Whether or not this will help the music business is debatable (why buy songs via MySpace when you can hear them on MySpace and download them elsewhere for free?), but the ability to link up with advertising dollars could be a way for the majors to recoup some losses. [Wired]