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Musicians may finally have a way to bypass the recording contract holy grail that up-and-coming artists have perpetually sought for decades.

MySpace announced a deal with Snocap that will allow them to sell music downloads directly to fans through their profile pages.

Through the partnership, Snocap provides digital music retail tools, such as HTML code and DRM, to allow artists to set up online stores and sell their music in mp3 format.

Snocap also runs songs through a database to verify the song is an original, and not a cover of a copyrighted song.

Zealous fans can join the promotional efforts by using HTML code provided by the band to sell music from their page as well.

Artists can set their own price for the music, say 99 cents per download, or $12 for an entire album. Neither company said if they would charge the artists a commission.

The MySpace/Snocap music service is expected to be available in the U.S. by the end of this year.

"MySpace has become one of the largest promotional tools for artists and labels to distribute their music to fans," said Chris DeWolfe, chief executive officer of MySpace.

"By introducing a powerful commercial tool set into the industry, we expect to see artists translate their community reach into sales, ultimately allowing more bands to make a living and connect with fans."

"Up until now bands faced the challenges of content availability, technology and distribution," said Tom Anderson, president of MySpace.

"This music service enables artists and labels to oversee their own commercial and distribution platforms while lowering the barriers for all bands to sell music directly to their fans in a way that's easy and totally legal."

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