The BBC are launching an iPlayer for music

The BBC are reportedly in talks to create a version of iPlayer that is specially for listening to music.

The new service is being prepared for 2013, and is apparently called ‘Playlister’. With a database of hundreds of thousands of archive musical recordings, the new site will allow license fee-payers to stream as much music as they want to for free.

Previously, the BBC were hesitant to take steps to create a music streaming service of this kind because they had run into problems with clearing the rights to their vast amounts of recordings in the past.

Now, Spotify and iTunes are among the companies who have been brought in for discussion with the BBC to work out the logistics behind the project. Spotify and other services operate by maintaining a bulk rights deal with record labels, and so the BBC may be considering setting up similar contracts.

A BBC spokesman told The Telegraph, “The BBC is regularly in conversation with digital music providers about how we strengthen radio’s position as the number one place for discovering music in the UK”