EMI, the British music group behind Coldplay and Gorillaz, has confirmed it is holding talks with YouTube, which could see it offer its content on the popular social networking website.

YouTube said yesterday that it has held discussions with a number of record labels in a bid to offer music video downloads.

Warner Music Group, which was earlier this year involved in a takeover battle with EMI, also confirmed it is talking to the website.

YouTube co-founder Steve Chen said the site hopes to "have every music video ever created" within 18 months.

Although YouTube, which was this week named one of Time magazine’s "coolest websites" has spoken with music groups, no formal agreements have yet been reached.

This week The Times reported how the site created a new online hero when a 79-year-old British widower’s video monologues became the hottest sensation on the web, attracting more than a million downloads.

The website is now aiming to go beyond being a site for sharing home videos to becoming a provider of mainstream entertainment.

YouTube hosts homemade videos, but pirated commercial clips can be found. The site has an estimated 43 per cent of the market for online video, according to Hitwise.

A spokesman for EMI said: "EMI is talking to YouTube about a variety of possible business models."

YouTube sprung out of nowhere a year ago and now claims to show more than 100 million videos a day. It is negotiating for rights to post current and archive music videos on its site, and said any commercial model it decides on will offer the videos free.

The social networking website plans to allow users to add the music videos to their own profiles and post reviews.

Mr Chen said: "Right now we’re trying to very quickly determine how and what the model is to distribute this content and we’re very aggressive in assisting the labels in trying to get the content on to YouTube."

Earlier this year, YouTube agreed a deal with US broadcaster NBC to promote its autumn schedule on the website. The broadcaster had previously had to ask YouTube to remove unauthorised footage of its shows posted by users.

The news form YouTube the week it emerged that internet arm of News Corporation will sell Fox films and television content in an attempt to take a corner of the burgeoning online content market.

Fox is making its movie and television content available for download on Microsoft’s Windows devices. Movies available for Windows in October will include X-Men: The Last Stand,Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties and The Omen.

The digital music market is growing at a rapid rate and a deal with key internet players like YouTube would make sense for music groups. EMI said in April that digital music revenue jumped more than 150 per cent in 2006, stripping out currency fluctuations, and was likely to account for more than 5.5 per cent of recorded music revenue.

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