Apple is to open its iTunes music store to users of the Bebo social networking site. 

The companies plan to allow visitors to Bebo Band sites to buy music and provide young people with an alternative to pirating tracks via peer-to-peer software or BitTorrent streams.

The technology is being built into the Bebo pages and the initial roll-out will cover Bebo's 8.8 million users in Britain and Ireland, although it may be rolled out worldwide later.

Bebo has 500,000 musicians on its site from established acts to garage bands trying to make it into the big time.

'Bebo' was the number one search term in the UK for the week ending 26 May 2007 and has held that position for the past three weeks, according to Hitwise.

Share of UK internet searches for 'bebo' have increased threefold in the past year and twofold in the past six months.

Bebo ranked sixth among all categories of websites in May based on share of UK internet visits, up from eighth in April.

Bebo now ranks behind Google UK, eBay UK, Windows Live Hotmail, Google.com and MSN UK.