EMI Recorded Music on Tuesday (7/18) began selling over 100 full-length albums and a number of singles as digital downloads via the Internet. Music by EMI artists ranging from Janet Jackson to Frank Sinatra is being sold through established online distributors--not through EMI's own website--at costs similar to those of CDs.

In what EMI is calling a trial period, online distributors such as HMV, Virgin JamCast, CDnow and Best Buy are offering EMI's downloads. At press time, the downloads could be found on some, but not all, of those sites; Virgin’s JamCast and Canada’s HMV retail sites appeared to have the largest offerings.

EMI becomes the second major record company to offer for sale albums from its catalog in a downloadable format. In April, Sony Music began doing so, and both BMG and Seagram's Universal Music Group reportedly plan to begin doing so this summer.

Tuesday’s (7/18) launch of the EMI trial period was originally scheduled for July 1, but was pushed back to July 18, reportedly due to technical issues. The start of the trial also coincides with the launch of Microsoft’s Windows Media Player 7.

The music is being offered in both the Windows Media and Liquid Audio formats. The company has not said how long the trial period will last.

A major hurdle that EMI and other record labels face, of course, is convincing consumers to pay for digital downloads that can likely be obtained for free via Napster, the popular and controversial MP3 file-trading network that currently boasts roughly 20 million users.

Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” and D’Angelo’s “Voodoo” are among the EMI albums now being offered for purchase as digital downloads on Virgin’s JamCast site at a price of $12.95. “Dark Side of the Moon” was available at press time via Napster as a single MP3 file that could be downloaded for free, as were all of the individual tracks from “Voodoo.”

EMI and other major record labels are hoping a judge will rule later this month to grant the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) recent request for a preliminary injunction against Napster that would halt the trading of copyrighted music via the Napster network. The RIAA filed on behalf of the major record labels a copyright-infringement lawsuit against Napster earlier this year.