MySpace Music & What It Means for Everyone Else

Written by Nicole Ferraro

Thursday, April 3. 2008 at 06:14 PM EDT 1 comment

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MySpace officially announced the creation of MySpace Music on Thursday, a new music service set to launch this month as a joint venture between MySpace and three of the four major record labels (excluding EMI, for now). MySpace Music will offer ad-supported streaming music, playlist building, DRM-free downloads, ringtones, and ticket sales -- as well as a few hazy futures for some others in the digital music industry.

Five People/Companies Who Should Be Worried

Apple: Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) is still commanding the digital download space with iTunes and, as yet, has had no real viable threat to its throne. If MySpace Music succeeds in selling DRM-free music -- something Apple gave up on a long time ago -- it could emerge as a serious competitor.

Apple also announced recently that it may replace its pay-per-download model with a plan where users would pay a premium on their devices or a monthly subscription for free downloads -- a great prospect. But, according to The New York Times, MySpace's CEO Chris DeWolfe says subscriptions, as well as ad-supported downloads, are a consideration for MySpace as well. (So. Who knows... This may be the thing to shake Apple to its core! HA! You see what I did there?)

Imeem: MySpace Music will incorporate ad-supported streaming music and playlist building, a model currently deployed by imeem -- a social, music-discovery site. Currently imeem allows users to transplant their playlists to various social networking sites, including MySpace and Facebook . But will MySpace users stick around on imeem if the same services are being offered at home?

Facebook: Will this have any impact on Facebook's popularity? Facebook has long been hinting about the idea of Facebook Music, but nothing concrete has emerged. And, even if it did, particularly now, and considering MySpace's presence in music from its own inception, could Facebook really compete? Probably not.

(That is... unless Facebook Music lets you fling virtual sheep -- or, better, virtual bras -- at your favorite artists... Obviously that would be a huge selling point.)

New, undiscovered artists: I said awhile ago that, with the birth of MySpace Celebrity, MySpace was taking the focus off its claim to fame -- its no-name, yet-to-be-discovered artists. Now, with the launch of MySpace Music, these guys could easily get buried: Our eyes will be more likely to follow the shiny objects (i.e., famous artists) rather than the dingy-basement acoustic guitarists reigning from unglamorous places like Brooklyn.

Record industry: It's becoming apparent now that the record industry is giving up on getting paid according to the means it was once accustomed. As the industry folk continue to lose money, and perhaps the will to live, this partnership is another clear demonstration that they're waving their white handkerchiefs and reluctantly climbing aboard the digitized bandwagon.