Charities are set to benefit from the proceeds of music downloads with the launch of a new website fairsharemusic.com.

The site promises to give half of the profit from each download to charity, and is offering over 8.5 million tracks with prices starting at 79p each.

The 11 founding charities partners include British Heart Foundation, British Red Cross, Oxfam and NSPCC, while additional charities are invited to become affiliate partners and receive download proceeds.

The site also plans to include tailor-made playlists and charts compiled by music industry experts and charities.

A commercially-run social enterprise, fairsharemusic is the brainchild of Lee Cannon and Jonny Woolf, who met working for the same record company in the 1990s.