The Virgin Group, in collaboration with MusicNet, has announced that it will be launching a digital online music store, making Virgin the first traditional music store to make a move into the digital world.

The download store will be available to US customers in August, with a European store set for a November launch. The store will use the Windows Media format. MusicNet will be responsible for backoffice management, such as order filling.

At firs, the Virgin Digital store will offer up 700,000 singles. Richard Branson said: "Passionate music fans have made it clear that they want their music when they want it, where they want it and how they want it."

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