In what's being hailed by some as a milestone for online music

distribution, Hollywood Records announced Thursday that it is making a

new track by swing band Alien Fashion Show available for free in the

controversial, high-quality audio format known as MP3.

The move marks the first time that a major label has offered music for

download as an MP3 file.

Until now, the format, which allows users to download music with

near-CD-quality, largely has come under fire from the music industry as

a vehicle that allows fans to make unauthorized copies of songs

available for free, global listening.

But officials at Hollywood, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company

and also includes such contemporary acts as Fastball and former big

names such as Queen on its artist roster, are touting MP3s as a new

avenue for breaking unheard-of bands.

"I want people to download this, steal this and turn their friends onto

it," said Mark DiDia, Hollywood's senior vice president and general

manager. "Hopefully they'll like it enough to buy it online or blow into

a record store and get it or see them when they come to town."

The track -- "Detroit Swing City," a retro take on Kiss' hard-rock

classic "Detroit Rock City" -- is taken from Alien Fashion Show's

self-titled debut, due out Tuesday. MP3s of the song are available at

the MP3 news sites Dimension Music (www.dmusic.com) and MP3.com

(www.mp3.com).

Calling the release "a preemptive strike" to keep Hollywood ahead of

typically more adventurous independent labels, MP3.com president Michael

Robertson said the tactic was significant not only for employing the MP3

format but for including a song in its entirety rather than just a clip.

"I was a little surprised that it happened this soon," Robertson said.

"I thought that we would see a lot of smaller labels moving in this

direction, and then they would put pressure on the larger labels."

Much of the music industry first focused attention on MP3s last

December, when tracks from the then-unreleased Pearl Jam album

Yield were leaked by radio, then recorded and posted as MP3s on

the Net. Pre-released material from big-name artists such as Madonna,

Eric Clapton and Van Halen turned up as MP3 files soon after, prompting

the record labels and the Recording Industry Association of America to

issue cease-and-desist letters to the sites hosting the files.

"I've seen one or two bands that are just some kids putting their music

online as MP3s, but I figured you'd never see that from a commercial

company," said Josh Wardell, webmaster for "Josh Wardell's Pearl Jam MP3

Archive," which features unreleased live songs from the grunge

superstars.

Wardell said Hollywood's offering of the Alien Fashion Show track could

signal a major change in how major labels do business. "It's a different

way of looking at things, and I think it'll probably work," he said.

Most Net watchers expect major labels to first dip their toes into the

MP3 world with little-known acts, a view backed by DiDia, who likened

online releases to marketing techniques such as promotional cassettes

and stickers.

"It's obviously different if you're talking about Pearl Jam," he said.

"We don't have Pearl Jam here. We have Alien Fashion Show, and we're

looking for exposure."

The RIAA says that contrary to the perceptions of many MP3 fans and

webmasters, who have fought with the association over unauthorized

posting of MP3-formatted music for anyone clicking onto their site, the

recording industry is not opposed to the format.

"We're excited about the potential that it has," said Frank Creighton,

the RIAA's vice president and associate director of anti-piracy. "But

clearly the majority of the uses of it are unauthorized. Companies that

want to use the format for authorized purposes, by all means we

encourage that. If they're not encrypting the file, they do run the risk

that the song may be sent around the world without any control over it,

but that's their decision to make with a promotional tool."

Driving Hollywood's decision to use MP3s is the difficulty in breaking new

bands onto radio, said Kevin Gasser, a senior vice president with the

label.

"It gets harder every day. Last year there were 30,000 albums released,

so you can imagine what the competition's like."

Meanwhile, the label already is planning its next MP3 release, a track

by Joan Jones, whose album Starlight Criminal is due out in

September.

"The argument against this, if there is one, seems to be that we're

killing the singles business," DiDia said. "But I think we're adding to

the full-length business. There was never a plan to release Alien

Fashion Show's 'Detroit Swing City' as a commercial single. If we can

turn a hundred-thousand kids onto it, why wouldn't we?"