German media giant Bertelsmann is due to announce a tie-up with U.S. online retailer Amazon for its music business.

According to newspaper reports, Amazon would take over the running of CDNow, Bertelsmann's online music store, earning a percentage of the margins, while the German company would retain 100 percent ownership of the brand and its site.

Should the deal go through it would mark the next step in Bertelsmann's retreat from online retailing. Last week, it sold off the German-speaking customer base of its online bookstore BOL.de to competitor Buch.de, shedding its staff of 50.