Justin Timberlake released his latest song, “Suit & Tie,” on Myspace last week in order to promote both his new album and the revamped version of Myspace (Timberlake is a minority partner in the group that purchased the social network in 2011). The new Myspace, which lets users listen to music for free in order to help promote artists, has drawn early praise for its functionality and sleek design, but it may have hit a bump in the road as a coalition of indie record labels claims the network is using music from member labels without permission.

“The group, Merlin, negotiates digital deals on behalf of labels around the world,” reports The New York Times. “Charles Caldas, chief executive of Merlin, said in an interview on Friday that its deal with Myspace expired over a year ago, yet songs from more than 100 of its labels are still available on Myspace, including Beggars Group, Domino and Merge, three of the biggest independents.”

“While it’s nice that Mr. Timberlake is launching his service on this platform, and acting as an advocate for the platform,” Caldas said, “on the other hand his peers as artists are being exploited without permission and not getting remuneration for it.”

Myspace spokeswoman Neda Azarfar explained that the company opted not to renew its contract with Merlin, and any member label songs remaining on the site, “were likely uploaded by users.” Upon request by the labels, any songs would be removed, said Azarfar.

Myspace boasts the largest library of digital music — more than 50 million songs, according to the company — and December statistics from comScore indicate the site had 27.4 million unique visitors in the U.S. (considerably less than its peak of 76 million in 2008, but still a significant audience).

“The industry as a whole is largely supportive of Myspace, which is now seen as an underdog facing long odds,” notes NYT. “For small labels, though, the licensing situation has brought back memories of the introduction of MySpace’s first music service, MySpace Music, in 2008, when deals were cut with the major labels but most independents were left out for more than a year.”