Coca Cola is to close its UK online music download site mycokemusic.com at the end of July because of competition from the likes of Apple's iTunes service.

A note on mycokemusic.com says the site will close on 31 July. Punters won't be able to buy any more credits for the service and those who still have some left are being advised to use up their existing credits before the site closes.

In a statement, the fizzy drinks outfit explained: "When we launched mycokemusic, it was because our consumers told us that this was something they were really interested in.

"In 2004, the digital music scene was just developing and the only way for Coke to offer access to music downloads was to open our own store. That's not true today and there is no need for Coke to continue to run a store."

Mycokemusic.com was launched in January 2004 using technology from music distributor OD2. At the time Coke's site bragged that it was the "first consumer branded, legitimate downloadable music site" for UK music fans, and promised to offer more than 250,000 songs from 8,500 artists, with individual tracks costing from 80p and albums from £6.40. ®

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