The site, music.download.com, allows bands to upload up to 50 megabytes of music – up to 10 songs of typical length – and will compete with GarageBand.com, another site which offers similar services.
CNET, which derives some revenue from search but most from other ad formats, also launched Monday a site for downloadable games for computers and hand-held devices.
The company, which operates download.com, plans to add more categories of content later this year. For years, download.com has offered software downloads to users who download more than 75 million files each month, the company said.
In related news, CNET plans to relaunch MP3.com next week as a site for digital music fans to get product reviews. The company purchased MP3.com in December from Vivendi Universal SA's U.S. Internet unit.
Meanwhile, a new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project on Monday said more than 17 million Americans, or 14 percent of adult Internet users, have stopped downloading music over the Internet.
One-third of the former downloaders – nearly 6 million – say they stopped because of copyright suits filed by the recording industry since last summer against more than 1,000 users.
But the overall percentage of people who say they currently do download music has inched back up since November, Pew said of the random telephone survey of 1,371 surfers conducted in February.
The survey didn't distinguish between music downloaded illegally and songs bought through authorized sites such as iTunes.