Music group EMI yesterday made the industry's most significant move yet towards selling music on the web by putting more than 90% of its catalogue online, including artists such as Coldplay, Robbie Williams and David Bowie.

The company has signed up with 20 music distributors including internet companies Freeserve and MSN, MTV, BT's Dotmusic and HMV to offer more than 140,000 tracks for downloading across Europe.

It is the biggest move by a major record company to combat the tide of online music piracy that has contributed to a slump in music sales over the past three years.

Last year, global music sales fell 7.2% to £20bn, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the worldwide music trade organisation.

Online piracy and CD burning technology, which allows computer users to record music straight to CD from their hard drives, have been blamed as a significant factor in the fall. Napster, the original driving force behind online piracy, was forced offline.

A host of sites such as Kazaa and Soulseek have sprung up in its place, enabling users to swap pirated songs directly.

EMI and Universal Music are suing the Californian venture capitalists which backed Napster, seeking $150,000 per copyright violation plus punitive damages.

EMI UK's chief executive, Tony Wadsworth, said the industry needed "to use all legitimate means possible to hamper piracy and make as much music available online as possible".

The deal allows consumers to make copies of songs and transfer them to recordable CDs, portable music players and their hard drives.

Consumers can also purchase singles online once they hit the radio airwaves.

Until now EMI and other major labels had placed stringent restrictions on the number of songs available and the manner in which they can be copied, causing web users to seek illegal alternatives.