The service is scheduled to go live later this year and will allow users to download and stream music to laptops, smart phones and other mobile devices for a monthly fee.

Spokeswoman Tiffany Guamaccia said that what the company is launching is not just a legal version of LimeWire, as some have speculated, but a completely new service that it has been working hard on for some time now.

"Essentially, the new music service will be an ecosystem comprised of a desktop media player, mobile applications and a Web-based music experience for downloading and streaming," Guamaccia said.

The new service will have several cloud integration features including one that allow iTunes content to be synched to the cloud. The subscription service will allow users to have "complete and instant" access to music on their desktops, mobile devices and stored in the cloud.

The desktop media player will have "robust" music discovery features and will be capable of dynamically generating playlists based on user preferences, and recommendations, Guamaccia said. The media player will also include other discovery features, such as finding community editorial ratings and reviews.