LONDON (Reuters) - MySpace expands its presence in the entertainment market today with the British launch of its music service, as the social networking site seeks to reinvent itself after being eclipsed by rival Facebook.

MySpace Music is already up and running in the United States, and aims to combine music content in the form of songs, videos, artist profiles, playlists and charts with social networking allowing fans to share their discoveries online.

Access to the site is free, but News Corp-owned Myspace aims to make money through advertising and by taking a share of sales of concert tickets and merchandise, reflecting broader diversification in the struggling music business.

Users can also purchase and download songs and albums on Apple's iTunes digital store.

"This is indicative of the direction we want to go," said Courtney Holt, president of MySpace Music. We want to be a social content and media platform and we believe heavily in the socialisation of content as core to our future strategy," he told Reuters in a London interview.

"It's not about just a passive listening experience. We want you to be active, we want you to go places, we want you to search for music. Music lives in places that require you to work to find it. We know our audience is hungry for discovery."