EMI and Streamwave have partnered up to offer a subscription based digital music distribution network, via the online streaming of EMI content on demand through Streamwave.com.

The multi-year non-exclusive license agreement is reported to be available at the beginning of 2001, and will allow for unlimited access to streaming music for a yet to be disclosed monthly fee.

The service sounds quite similar to what MP3.com has been embroiled in legal disputes over with it’s my.mp3.com, but exclusive to licensed content provided by EMI, which will have new content available to it on a regular basis.

The deal is an interesting new announcement, as speculation has arisen of Bertelsmann potential interest in either acquiring or partnering with EMI to provide additional digital music content to the upcoming revision 2, subscription version of the now cult classic MP3 application, Napster.

Time will tell how the rumors of Bertelsmann and EMI’s potential future business relationships, but one thing is for sure with this announcement. EMI is wise to the fact many consumers are ready to be offered a digital music subscription service as an option to listen to music. The question remains if they will accept simply streaming those tunes as an acceptable solution to this desire, which is quite potentially susceptible to network congestion, and disrupted service, especially when the catalog of music in question is available from only one major label for that service?