"Big Four" major label EMI has plans to launch a dedicated Web portal, but contrary to what many are reporting, it will not be a competitor to other online music shops.

A source familiar with proceedings told BetaNews this morning said that the forthcoming EMI.com is not an attempt to compete with, or displace iTunes, Amazon, or any other digital music store.

The reason this point may be critical is because EMI has been making moves to increase the availability of its content across various other platforms. On Tuesday, the label announced its content would be available on subscription music service Spotify, and late last week it affirmed its participation with Nokia's Comes with Music subscription service.

It was also the last of the major labels to officially join the MySpace Music project which launched on September 25, That joint venture's sales interface is powered by Amazon.com's DRM-free MP3 store.

EMI.com's purpose will apparently differ from EMI Music Australia's recently launched site called Musichead.com. That regional subsidiary of EMI says it the first Australian record company to offer MP3s directly to consumers. Powered by 7Digital, the MP3s available direct from EMI Australia are DRM-free, and encoded at 320 Kbps.

The label intends, rather, to provide a resource to aid in music research and discovery.