An Irish version of the portal, which was set up in January to enable unsigned bands to sell their music, will be launched within a couple of months. Imagine managing director Brian O'Donoghue said he envisages the site ?going global" in about six months.

Independent music download sites have been key to the success of British bands such as Arctic Monkeys. Since January, 3,500 bands have signed up to Bandwagon, O'Donoghue said.

?Registered user numbers have gone into five figures and this month the site will do two million hits. It is probably already in the top 100,000 websites in the world."

For Imagine, the deal represents a cash investment of about 1m, and the company will provide a package of services at commercial rates.

Music is sold on Bandwagon through mp3 downloads, and part of the attraction is the opportunity to get a cut of content sales.

?Each registered user seems to be taking two pieces of content a month, " O'Donoghue said.

The big play, though, is to access a new market for Imagine products such as VOIP and SMS chat services.

The company had been scouring the market for content opportunities, O'Donoghue said, when it came across Bandwagon.

The portal is designed not only for music sales but also for social networking, and offers an online jukebox facility.

?We can get the whole music community and get it sitting on those services, " said O'Donoghue.

Imagine turned over 22m last year and is on target for 50m this year, according to O'Donoghue. The group now has 3% of the Irish broadband market, and is pushing for a 6%-7% stake this year.

Group company Gaelic Telecom now has more than 20,000 customers, and Access Telecom ranks second behind BT as an alternative business telecom provider.

We'll turn a profit at the end of this year, " he said.