Online and in love: Justin Timberlake of 'NSync is net friendly

The agreement will immediately add music from Zomba labels Jive, Silvertone and Verity to the service.

Pressplay's main rival, MusicNet, has also been securing licensing deals with large record companies since it launched last year, including a deal with Zomba records.

Giants

Subscription service Pressplay is jointly run by Universal, Sony and EMI and launched in December into the download sector previously dominated by Napster.

Industry giants Warner, EMI and Bertelsmann are behind MusicNet.

"This agreement represents another important step towards fulfilling Pressplay's goal of building an online music library that eventually will include the vast majority of the world's popular music," said Pressplay president Andy Schuon.

He added: "Adding Zomba to our catalogue enables Pressplay members to access even more digital music, including songs from such top artists as Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and 'N Sync, among others."

Napster, which led the online music revolution until a court order shut it down, has said a full, legal version will probably not be launched until March, by which time it expects to have content from major labels to offer.

Pressplay and MusicNet charge subscription fees which give users a fixed number of downloads but only Pressplay allows users to then record, or burn, those songs onto a compact disc.

Pressplay charges $24.95 (�17.50) for 1000 streams of songs, 100 downloads and 20 burns.

Both services are currently available in the US.