MySpace wishes to become competitors of Apples iTunes
Image from WikipediaMySpace is putting all effort in to setting up a digital music shop, currently MySpace has made already deals with three of the big four music companies.
The newspaper, the New York Times reports that social network website MySpace will roll out its so called MySpace Music shop as independent joint partnership with Universal Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group. The forth biggest music company EMI is expected to join the group soon. The music companies will get a minority stakes in the venture and will make their complete music catalogs available
Visitors to the site will be able to listen to free streaming music, paid for with advertising, and share customized play lists with their friends. They will also be able to download tracks to play on their mobile devices, putting the new site in competition with similar services like Apple, Amazon and eMusic.
A subscription-based music component, where users pay a monthly amount for unlimited access to downloadable tracks, is also being considered, Mr. DeWolfe said.
“This is really a mega-music experience that is transformative in a lot of ways,” he said. “It’s the first service that offers a full catalog of music to be streamed for free, with full community features, to be shared with all of your friends.”
Additional products like tickets, T-shirts, ring tones and other music merchandise will also be available. “It’s the full 360-degree revenue stream,” Mr. DeWolfe said.
More competition in the field of digital music would stimulate the market thus would be be good for the end consumer, this new joint venture however sounds more like a collutions rgar a real competition, with all the “big” record companies wanting to do almos anything to compete with Apples iTunes.
MySpace Music also has more of a ring like it’s competing with the Apples iTunes Music Store founded in 2003, instead of trying to offer something fresh and compelling. The way to compete with Apples iTunes is to make the world of free music as easy to use as Apple as done with commercial music.
Tags: Apple, EMI, eMusic, ITunes Store, Music, MySpace, Sony BMG, Universal Music, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group