Microsoft plans to introduce a music download service next year that will compete with iTunes, Napster and others, Monday’s Wall Street Journal reported. A spokeswoman for the software giant confirmed that Microsoft’s MSN Web site will offer such a service in 2004, but declined to provide further details. The LA Times reported in June that Microsoft had already shown its music store to executives at several record companies. The newspaper also said that Microsoft’s service would “give consumers more music-related information to guide their purchases than the iTunes Music Store does.”