MySpace, alongside its landmark joint venture partners which include EMI Music, Sony BMG Music, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony ATV/ Music Publishing unveiled the new ‘MySpace Music’ product (www.myspace.com/music) with new features for users and artists. MySpace Music will also incorporate the entire music catalogue from The Orchard, a major player in independent digital music. The new suite of products includes a catalogue of premium audio and video content, e-commerce offerings, and user and artist playlists. The goal is to further enhance the MySpace Music experience as well as provide monetization opportunities for its active music community.
14% of the Internet population (age 13+) have accessed music from social networks, according to the latest data from NPD.
The announcement marks the first phase in an iterative global product rollout which will ultimately include a vast catalogue of premium and promotional content, a wide selection of new user-to-user sharing tools, digital e-commerce opportunities for artists, and ultimately sales of merchandise and concert tickets. The new MySpace Music functionality currently available for U.S. MySpace users will also be available in Spanish and fully localized for the MySpace en Español community.
The first phase of the new MySpace Music unveils:
The new MyMusic personal music management toolset
Free and unlimited ad-supported, full-length audio streaming
Free and unlimited playlist functionality
Free discography and content catalogues for SONY BMG, UMG and WMG artists
DRM-free MP3 music e-commerce downloads powered by Amazon MP3
Ringtone e-commerce powered by Jamster
The ‘MyMusic’ toolset empowers the MySpace Music community in the U.S. to download, stream, and personalize their music content. The new product allows MySpace users to create playlists for both personal and public consumption and profile display, allowing profile visitors to stream all playlisted content on-demand and purchase MP3s of their favorite songs. Users can virally add a friend’s playlist to their own profile or take songs from a friend’s profile to their own.
The first four integrated sponsors to advertise on MySpace Music are McDonald’s, Sony Pictures, State Farm, and Toyota. These brands will be powering customers’ access to a host of new music services. McDonald’s will have presence on MySpace Music’s personal music player giving away a variety of free music downloads.
RBR/TVBR observation: This could be a game-changer. The MySpace social community is now able to share entire albums for free. The new model here opens wide ad-supported streaming, while still offering download purchases. Each MySpace user can launch their own radio station full of songs: Radio likely hopes this isn’t quite as successful as the iPod in that respect, but it still threatens.
