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Myspace Music goes live after deals with major labels

by Staff, Brand Republic 25-Sep-08, 10:10

LOS ANGELES - Social-networking site Myspace has launched its hotly anticipated music service to rival Apple's iTunes that allows users to listen to free streaming audio, purchase mp3s, browse artists and create playlists, as part of joint venture with the four major record labels.

Myspace Music was rolled out today as part of a grander scheme to inject advertising revenue for the troubled music industry after signing agreements with Sony BMG, EMI, Warner and Universal earlier this year.

The move allows major label bands such as Oasis, Coldplay, the Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party another gateway to connect to existing fans while independent and unsigned artists can vault themselves into the spotlight through the site's huge fan base, much like the Arctic Monkeys did in 2005.

Myspace's 120m global users can search for songs by title, artist or album to stream in a preferred online music player, which will showcase a variety of advertisements from companies like McDonald's, Sony Pictures, State Farm and Toyota.

The playlists will also include links to Amazon's mp3 music store where users can purchase songs. Future promotions will include merchandise sales and offers on concert tickets.

The site will also help independent and unsigned artists to monetise their content by allowing users to freely stream their songs in the ad-supported environment.

The first phase of Myspace Music includes the MyMusic personal music management tool, which includes the free and unlimited ad-supported streaming audio. Users can download, stream and personalize their music content, allowing profile visitors to browse their friends' songs and add them to their own profiles.

US users can purchase rights free tracks from Amazon by following links on the Myspace Music site. Amazon's mp3 store is not available in the UK, but plans for an overseas store are imminent.

Myspace Music hosts more than 5m major, independent and unsigned artists within the site's music profiles section. Its joint venture also includes partnerships with independent music distributor Orchard and Sony ATV.

Comments

James Bent - 25/09/2008

MySpace is a great site, another great site I believe is www.treehoo.com the climate friendly, Google powered search engine. It could make it so easy to save our planet!