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Record labels are allowing fans to stream music for free in a fight against piracy. Spotify, a new music service allows fans to listen to any music in their catalog of 4 million tracks. All record labels have signed up to Spotify, who's database is fast approaching that of itunes and is currently expanding at 10,000 new tracks every day.

Daniel Ek, chief executive and founder of Spotify: “We think that music has gone from being about ownership to being about access. I have established that. People listen to more music than ever from a bigger diversity of artists.

They don’t care so much any more about actually owning physical CDs, or even downloading, they care about being able to access whatever they want, whenever they want it, wherever they are.”

Spotify gives users the ability to listen to as much music as they want, though users are not album to put this music onto their portable media players. They will also be hearing adverts at 30 minute intervals.

Jamie Cullum, the award-winning jazz-pop artist, said. “You can’t prosecute a 12-year-old boy for illegally downloading a record. You just have to make it easier for him not to.”

What do you think? Does a streaming service like Spotify or Last.fm deter music pirates? Is it good for the music industry? Let us know in the comments below.