The corporation is getting into the music discovery business.

The BBC has confirmed that it is working a music streaming service together with its own approach to curated playlists.

The plans were set out in the BBC’s annual charter review, taking the form of “a new music discovery service” that makes the 50,000 tracks the BBC broadcasts each month available to listen online for a limited period.

The service will be built on the BBC’s existing Playlister service, which allows users to create playlists from songs played on the BBC’s radio and TV services and listen to them on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube or Deezer. The BBC’s plans would see the tracks streamed from its own site.

The BBC will also offer its own curated playlists, positioning itself as “a champion for new UK music,” offering a mixture of recorded tracks and live sessions.

“We may also look at ways to deploy our digital curation skills globally, showcasing the best UK music to audiences across the world,” the BBC continues, suggesting it may be preparing to counter the new challenges brought by Apple’s Beats 1 station, which poached Zane Lowe from Radio 1 earlier this year.

The service doesn’t have a launch date as yet, but the BBC confirms it has “developed a digital music proposal with the music industry,” suggesting the plans have already gone past the ideas stage. [via Music Business Worldwide]