Online music sites are still around and still popular, as seen by the latest investment into SoundCloud, a Germany-based file sharing service.

SoundCloud began in 2007 to allow amateur musicians to upload, share and comment on their music.

The site is currently estimated to have about a million users and recently raised about $10 million from Index Ventures and Union Square Ventures, according to All Things D.

The site has not yet drawn much attention from the major music labels or litigations that seem to be the death of every music-oriented file-sharing site that has surfaced in recent years.

Big media companies and music conglomerates are not very happy the way torrent sites or file sharing sites cut into their revenue by allowing users to share music or other files for free.

Napster, an online music peer-to-peer file sharing service, was the first casualty of this industry. Currently, the service is an online paid service instead of the original P2P version.

The site also intends to compete with MySpace, which was once the hotspot for musicians who could upload their music onto the site and share links.

SoundCloud, however, is expected to be what Flickr is to photographs and take MySpace's music section one step ahead. It allows users to upload their music with a special URL, and it can be publicized or shared via Facebook, Twitter or other social media.

The service also has an API that allows other applications or smartphones, including the iPhone, to upload or download music and sound files.

However, it is yet to be seen how long the service will survive before coming under the watchful eyes of the music bigwigs. Particularly, the site's feature which allows people to share music privately, even those that one didn't create or own.

As the site gains popularity, there would be users who would take advantage of its structure to share copyrighted music.

AllThingsD stated that the company plans to use Audible Magic's 'fingerprinting' technology, which will make it easier for copyright owners to pull content off the service, similar to what currently happens on YouTube.

SoundCloud, Index and Union Square all declines to comment, the website said.

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