Austin, Texas - The owners of the lucrative Music.com domain name on Thursday announced the launch of an "artist-controlled" music download and ringtone distribution service.

In addition to band profiles with photos, blogs and messaging, Music.com will allow artists to create free accounts with no monthly fees and set their own pricing for downloads and ringtones.

The company will offer artists a payout of over 80% on $0.99 music downloads, charging a flat rate of $0.18 per transaction, while downloads over $1 will be charged a 20% rate per transaction.

Music.com says this pay structure sees artists retaining 35% more of the purchase price of a download than is otherwise currently available.

Artists may sell their songs on Music.com or any site where users can post widgets.

The service will also provide artists with a customizable ringtone creator, and offer them 80% of the net mobile transaction on ringtone sales.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/27bjuj

http://www.music.com