BSkyB has announced plans to close down its music download service, Sky Songs, due to a lack of demand from customers.

The website allowed subscribers to stream music for a monthly fee (£4.99) and buy albums and singles to download, but in a statement, a Sky spokesman said the venture "wasn't working out".

"We just didn't see the consumer demand we'd hoped for," he continued

The site will remain open until February 2011, but subscribers will not be charged any more monthly fees.

The demand for music download and streaming sites is high, with companies like iTunes and Spotify attracting huge numbers of users.

It's thought Sky Songs managed to attract fewer than 10,000 subscribers despite signing deals with all the major record labels.

A letter to customers Sky said it would automatically cancel any subscriptions, though the library of tracks on the site may change as the shutdown approaches.

The letter said: "Although we've created what we believe to be a really innovative and good value digital music service, regrettably we've not been able to reach a large enough customer base in order for the service to continue.

"Please be reassured that any tracks you have previously downloaded using the service remain yours to keep and are not affected by the service's closure.

"These will remain in your music library and on any devices, such as your iPod or MP3 player, to which you have transferred music files."