Month: October

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MySpace launched its separately operated music service under the support of the four major labels. It allows users to stream music on demand, create playlists, add music players to their profiles, and buy DRM-free music downloads (via Amazon) and ringtones (via Jamster). Soon MySpace Music will allow artists to sell concert tickets and merchandise on their pages and will get a cut of the revenue, as well as exclusive content like new tracks and videos to encourage consumers to download albums and music. MySpace has recently made deals with the four major music publishers. This launch took place during a time of steep drops in physical sales and iTunes dominating the online digital music market. MySpace Music is facing some problems. Converting MySpace users into music purchasers, the division of equity between major labels, and the under-representation of the independent labels' music repertoire. Despite this, Amazon looks to be the most likely guaranteed winner since they are not involved in any of those listed problems. The majors have 40% equity in MySpace Music, valued at $120 million. It is interesting to see them so involved with the service after not supporting services like Last.FM, Pandora, etc. One reason could be because of the inclusion of sponsors such as McDonald's, Toyota, Sony Pictures, and State Farm, which will be rotating ads around the site. Many independent music publishers and agencies have still not been able to reach agreements with MySpace Music over rights to their songs. Another advantage the majors have in their 40% stake is the access to sales and other data from MySpace, especially that of independent artists that their labels will not have access to. While it does not have the same amount of music as iTunes, yet, MySpace Music seems set to be a success. They will need to sell a large number of ads on their site for around $10 per 1,000 impressions, much higher than the standard US rate of $3 per 1,000 impressions, in order to generate long-term profits. Thus far, Amazon seems to be the only player set to be the definite winner.

Month: October

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MySpace Music shows a turning point for the recording industry. The four major labels and MySpace, a News Corp. subsidiary, are taking part in this joint venture of a brand new music service and business model. This is the culmination of over 18 months of research in business models and digital music strategy for the labels. During that time, the majors signed deals to open the door for ad-supported free streaming, digital rights management (DRM)-free music sales, and reduced licensing costs while getting revenue share and/or company equity in return. The new model is meant to be more of a template for future agreements, rather than an experiment. Many indie labels are upset with MySpace. They were not included during the launch of the site, mainly because theyre still working out their agreements with MySpace. This is because many of the indies are fighting to get company equity like the majors have, but it is off the table in the discussions. They are still discussing the terms of ad revenue from streaming and purchased music and video. The focus on major labels could also be a problem because the vast majority of artists on MySpace are unsigned or on indie labels. The Orchard and major label-owned indie distributors have licensed their catalogs to MySpace Music in time for launch.

Month: June

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The band Pennywise originally went to MySpace Records to capitalize on the site's social networking abilities. They were then given the opportunity to give away the band's upcoming album for free with support coming from mobile billing and music delivery service Textango. The band took the chance and it worked out extremely well. Of the 630,000 people who have signed up for Textango and received the promo code for the album, 400,000 of them downloaded it. This is the same number of people who purchased Pennywise's best-selling album to date, 1997's "Full Circle." The new album also boasts their highest-charted single in their career. Their live show guarantees reportedly increased by 20% and their merchandise sales have boosted, as well.

Month: June

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MySpace Music Secret Shows are a huge hit from the social network giant, which just held their 150th show with Gnarls Barkley in New York. MySpace's large network of users allows them to pull a crowd to shows in virtually any city just 48 hours before show will take place. This is the site's longest running and most successful music program, where they put on free shows with big bands at small, intimate venues. The way one finds out about the shows is that users will sign up as a "friend" of the Secret Shows profile page and will receive a bulletin message saying tomorrow night a band will be playing in a particular city and venue, first come, first served. The idea is that a fan will be willing to go down to the venue and wait in line for however long possible in order to see their band play in an intimate setting. Corporate sponsors for the event include Chilis and Samsung Mobile, but MySpace is continuing to look for more partners. The bands play the show for free in exchange for promotion on MySpace Music, and any costs are paid for by their label as a part of marketing and promotion expenses. MySpace enjoys being able to translate from a online, computer-based experience to something in the real world for users and fans to be involved with.

Month: n/a

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Congress and the courts have dealt with the issue of defamation on the internet before but they have not had many opportunities to apply these precedents to online social sites like MySpace. The auther of this article suggest that Congress revisit statutes pertaining to internet defamation, with the goal of giving courts more flexibility to deal with continuously evolving technology.