Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 4, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Social networking platform MySpace will reveal the secret surrounding its own music service, announced last month, in the next few days. As US industry portal Cnet reports, citing anonymous insider sources, the Internet company will announce the formation of a joint venture with at least three of the four major music labels. The aim of the cooperation is to establish a dedicated music service on the community site. The new service, called MySpace Music, is set to offer music streams, downloads of MP3s without copy protection, concert tickets, ringtones and various merchandise items. According to the anonymous source, the service will launch within the next few months. In the longer term, the MySpace music service is then intended to establish itself online as a competitor to Apple’s iTunes Music Store and drive MySpace’s development from a typical social network into a comprehensive media company.
According to Cnet’s source, MySpace’s music service is an important concern for the music industry. Label bosses have repeatedly expressed the wish to position a strong iTunes competitor in the market. The criticism is that Apple’s service has now expanded its control of the online music market too far. “Apple practises very skilful marketing and is particularly popular with the younger generation of users through its iTunes service,” says Daniel Knöll, spokesman for the German Music Industry Association, in an interview with pressetext.de. However, he cannot confirm the accusation that Apple’s service dominates the market too strongly in Germany, since Musicload is a strong competitor here. “Of course, a variety of music offerings on the Internet is important. It convinces users of the wide range of possibilities available for obtaining music legally online,” Knöll explains.
Rumours that MySpace was working on its own music service leaked to the public as early as the end of February. At the time, it was said that negotiations with the major labels had already been under way for several weeks. More detailed information has only now become known, however. According to the insider source, MySpace has already secured the support of three of the four major music labels for the new service through cooperation agreements. Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony BMG Music Entertainment are said to have already signed contracts with the portal that will bring songs from the labels’ respective catalogues into MySpace’s music offering. EMI alone has not yet given a final commitment. Negotiations with the music label are already in full swing, however, and the prospects of success are good, the industry insider says.
MySpace is already one of the largest music platforms on the Internet. According to a current survey by market research company comScore, the portal recorded 68.6 million unique visits to its site in the USA in January of this year alone. Worldwide, around 110 million users accordingly visit the web platform each month.
