Will MySpace be the saviour of the music industry? Perhaps the record industry doesn't know where the answer lies, but MySpace has a better chance of online success than most thanks to that huge userbase. Despite flagging recently, and that pesky Facebook stealing the fickle social network site limelight, MySpace still claims 120 million unique users each month, on comScore figures.
I saw MySpace's challenge to construct a service that combined:
• listening and buying of tracks for major artists
• listening and selling for independent artists - the long tail, and party faithful of MySpace's userbase
• devise, or integrate, a recommendation system that helps navigate the huge amount of content
• tap the lucrative live music market
How did they do?
Listening and buying tracks for major artists
The new MySpace Music service is a joint venture with the four major labels - EMI, Warner, Universal and Sony BMG. Consquently it offers free, unlimited streaming of full-length tracks (so no need for those annoying 30-second previews) that directly competes with Last.fm, Imeem, Hype Machine and the like.
Amazon partnered with MySpace on the retail side, so there are DRM-free MP3 downloads for sale through Amazon and various ringtone sales powered by News Corp's Jamster service.
All the elements are there, but the down side is the heavy corporate feel of the site. It feels more like a record label promo site than any kind of intimate, networked community.
MySpace was bigging up the value of the site even before it launched, claiming it is worth $2bn. News Corp shareholders, not to mention those of the labels, want to see what $2bn looks like on a music website, and they couldn't have tried harder to do just that. There are four suitably big-brand advertisers at launch (what MySpace call 'integrated sponsors'): McDonald's, Sony Pictures, Toyota and State Farm. Blip.fm, this is not...
Listening and selling for independent artists
MySpace also signed up a raft of independent artists through The Orchard's digital network. But not Merlin - sometimes called the fifth major label and a big player in the US, and a group that includes Beggars and Domino and is home to Radiohead, the Arctic Monkeys, Basement Jaxx, Vampire Weekend and Dizzee Rascal. Merlin chief executive Charles Caldas said that the big labels will profit at the expense of the indies,, who get royalties but no share in ad revenue from campaigns run next to their artists.
Vampire Weekend Photograph: chris friese/Flickr/Some rights reserved
"Whilst Merlin continues our negotiations, we remain extremely concerned that with MySpace Music the major record labels are acting not only as competitors, but through their equity stakes in the venture, as the clients/end user as well. Without an equitable participation by independents, that creates a situation that is both unhealthy and dangerous. It certainly makes Chris DeWolfe's public statements, that the 'indie bands are really the heart of MySpace' ring extremely hollow."
But what about much smaller, individual artists - can they sell through their own MySpace page? Good news and bad - unsigned artists (say, me, if I wanted to make a track at home and try and flog it) can't sell through the site at the moment - but that is in the pipeline, a spokeswoman just confirmed to me. No date for that, but it is on the way. There are a whole bank of sites that already offer variations on that - Sellaband, Slicethepie, AmazingTunes or software solutions like easybe, for starters - but none have the scale of MySpace.
Recommendation systems
Streaming and downloads are backed up with biographies, discographies and a feature that lets users compile and share multiple playlists - again, borrowing from the success of earlier music community sites. Either MySpace is cleverly learning from what worked best of earlier, more pioneering sites and taking those features to the mainstream - or perhaps just pinching ideas and not implementing them very well.
Fred Wilson at A VC points out that the home page really isn't up to much - it's very commercial, and just plugs whoever's being advertised that day, rather than artists you would prefer. Jonas Brothers, anyone? No. Didn't think so.
"The bottom line for me is having all the music someone would want to listen to on demand is important, and MySpace Music has that. But the user interface and the social interactions are equally important, possibly more important. And in that regard they have a long way to go. I'm headed back to the Hype Machine, Last.fm, Tumblr and the other places on the web that allow me to listen to streamed music the way I want to."
'Inspired' by the Jonas Brothers Photograph: zzellers/Flickr/Some rights reserved
Last.fm didn't waste any time commenting on this: "It's no good offering millions of tracks if listeners can't find the right ones," said Christian Ward. "The key to offering a brilliant listener experience is to provide a rock solid way for people to discover the music they don't know yet know they'll love. Make discovery your priority and you can turn listeners into buyers, something we're seeing happening on Last.fm.
"Obviously that's something Myspace Music is hoping to achieve too, but the question is whether they place the same priority on recommendation, sharing and discovery."
Live music
Tick. The service partnered with a handful of gig services in the US including Secret Shows, Transmissions and MySpace Live (already on board, so nothing new there) as well as Front to Back and The List... gig tickets and merchandise are in there too.
Anything else?
It's only available in the US. But you can, of course, trick the internet into thinking you're in the US if you want to try it out. Plenty of reviews online, not least this excellent summary from our sister site paidContent.
Om Malik on GigaOm took a hard look at the business side of MySpace Music: does it add up? There are some major questions: are there Kangaroo-esque anti-trust issues about a service run jointly between the four biggest music labels, plus it doesn't yet have a chief executive despite claiming that fat self-proclaimed valuation.
"The advertising revenues from MySpace Music are going to be spread amongst a lot of people, and nobody should count on becoming rich. All that streaming revenues are going to do is pay for recruiting more artists. The sad part is that artists are going to be the last guys to see the money - if any."
The consensus is that MySpace Music isn't likely to present the challenge to iTunes dominance that many in the music industry would wish for; iTunes has achieved the elusive success of making money from music online where successive social networks have failed. And iTunes is about downloads, where MySpace Music is likely to see more success with streaming.
"If this works, then that is a good statement for the future of the music business. And if it doesn't, then it tells where the industry is going. In other words, this is a must-win move for the record labels, who are increasingly looks hapless and, well, unable to deal with change."
Photograph: MissTurner/Flickr/Some rights reserved
