ILike Launches Music Downloads Store

The makers of Facebook's most popular music app, iLike, are launching a new music store to supplement the streaming services they have been offering until now. Users will be able to buy the songs in MP3 format and prices are in line with the rest of the industry, ranging from $0.89 to $1.29 per song. The service is only available on the site for now.

“We’re enabling the millions of music fans who discover and share music on iLike to purchase songs in-page directly from iLike. Our solution provides a smooth, immediate in-page purchase experience. You can sign up, enter your credit card, and download the music you just bought — all without ever leaving the web page you were on when you discovered the song,” iLike CEO Ali Partovi told TechCrunch in an email.

iLike started out as an music discovery service and became a popular tool of sharing music on social networks. The site offered download links for iTunes and Amazon but has now launched its own option. iLike got the support of all the four major music labels, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI. It has been mostly ad supported so far but it's turning to the download store as an alternative solution, something that others in the market, like imeem, have also done recently.

The company partnered with MediaNet to provide the backend as well as the extensive indie label catalogue and PayPal was chosen as the payment option. The new store is in beta for now and buy options are only available on the site itself but the company plans to introduce the option on the widgets it currently offers for sites and social networks like iGoogle, Facebook, Bebo. The move could potentially open up the store to a lot more users while also providing them with a very fast and simple option of buying music online.