Snocap, the digital music management service cofounded by original Napster creator Shawn Fanning, is making both public and stealth strides to extend its service outside of the peer-to-peer (P2P) world in which it started.

Shawn Fanning

The company, which launched in late 2002 with the stated intent to help illegal P2P services go legit by using its digital licensing and copyright management service, announced a deal this week to power the imp business-to-business music service of Minnesota-based InRadio. Snocap’s service will be the technology behind imp’s service that allows online publishers, colleges, and others to offer their own branded music players, and enable visitors to their sites to sample promo tracks and purchase music.

“Snocap’s registry will empower our partner organizations with a way to easily market and distribute digital music content to their communities,” InRadio CEO Dan Carroll said in a statement. “Through our relationship with Snocap, music fans will be able to easily access a more extensive library of songs and connect with emerging and established artists.”

But at the same time and with little fanfare, the company has also opened up its digital registry to independent labels and unsigned artists, allowing them to upload music to the Snocap digital registry and get access to the company’s retail distribution list.

Snocap would charge uploaders between $30 and $100 per year to use the system, depending on the number of tracks uploaded, and it would also take a cut of each transaction.

A Snocap spokesman called the new services a “work in progress,” saying the overall design of the site will likely change. The services are also still undergoing testing, the company said.

Both moves reflect Snocap’s intent to expand its scope beyond the legal P2P world, which hasn’t taken off as quickly as many industry insiders had hoped. Snocap received increased attention a year ago when, in the wake of the landmark US Supreme Court decision in MGM v. Grokster, the major P2P services faced cease-and-desist letters from the music industry and contemplated a move to legitimacy. Snocap vowed to help them do that.

Some of those services have gone under, and some are still contemplating their fate, but few have made a smooth transition from illegal file-sharing service to legal, paid file-sharing service. iMesh did so, launching last October, but the firm has been quiet to date about the level of customer adoption. Another, Qtrax, recently announced a licensing deal with music giant EMI for a legal P2P service to launch in the fall.

Meanwhile, Mashboxx, the legal P2P service headed by former Grokster chief Wayne Rosso, picked Snocap to serve as the clearinghouse of sorts for its service, but has yet to launch. The company has made few public statements since announcing a licensing deal with label giant Sony BMG last June in the wake of the Supreme Court decision. In January, the company sent an e-mail out to people who signed up to beta-test Mashboxx, acknowledging the delay and promising that they would be contacted soon.