Listen.com signed a significant new distribution deal today with Terra Lycos that brings its Rhapsody subscription music service to a potential audience of 30 million users.

The partnership comes as San Francisco-based Listen.com signed licensing agreements with independent music labels Zomba and TVT Records. The deals add about 100,000 songs to Rhapsody’ digital catalog, including works from Britney Spears, `N Sync, Naughty By Nature and C.M.C. featuring Ja Rule.
The Rhapsody service has been making slow but steady progress for its streaming music service since it launched last December, forging online distribution partnerships with classical music label Naxos of America, Downbeat jazz and Internet access provider Speakeasy.net. The Lycos deal is by far its biggest partnership to date.

The Lycos Rhapsody service offers users free access to 20 Internet radio stations, broadcast over the Internet in FM quality sound. For $4.95 a month, subscribers get 50 commercial-free radio stations streamed over the Internet, in CD-quality sound, and the ability to skip tracks. The top subscription level costs $9.95 a month, and provides unlimited on-demand streams of favorite songs by favorite artists, like Christina Aguilera, Linkin Park, Jennifer Lopez, Jay-Z, Lauryn Hill, Prince and classic artists Bruce Springsteen and Simon and Garfunkel.

David Pritchard, senior director of music, TV and film for Terra Lycos, said the Rhapsody service fits with its strategy to move Internet surfers from free to premium paid content, as it has with enhanced e-mail, finance and search features.

“Offering a music service is a natural next step in that it builds on the strategy that Terrra Lycos has been unfolding over the last few months,'’ Pritchard said.

Listen.com, meanwhile, gains broader exposure for an online service that offers the largest music collection of any of the paid services – with tracks from four of the five largest record labels.

“For Listen, it’s a significant deal because it’s a pretty significant ISP,'’ said P.J. McNealy, a senior analyst for GartnerG2 in San Jose. “For Lycos, it’s part of their transition from being a data provider to an entertainment provider. The goal is to provide more entertainment, to convert more people to broadband. It’s part of a bigger picture.'’