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Posts Tagged “Myspace”

After weeks of speculation that he had the job in hand, MySpace has finally announced that former MTV Networks bigwig Courtney Holt has been named CEO of its music service. Holt was an early adopter to the service, using it to market music from the Black Eyed Peas, Audioslave, and Weezer when he was a digital honcho at Interscope Geffen A & M. (So much to answer for, and he hasn't even started yet!) [LAT]

2 comments

web 2.no

MySpace's Branding Ineptitude Results In Another Casualty

Tucson electropoppers ...Music Video? recently had their MySpace URL recalled by the service—not because it was overly raunchy, but because the site wanted it for itself. See, when the band snagged myspace.com/musicvideo the site didn't foresee a future in which it would want that bit of easy branding for its own music-video ventures—but it came to that realization recently, and as a result "requested" that the band go hunting for a new shortened link to its music. Of course, the allegedly music-forward MySpace didn't take into consideration that its URLs are a crucial part of many bands' marketing strategies, and that this land grab would result in the URL that ...Music Video? had been giving out to fans and members of the press (including NPR) redirecting to MySpace's own video hub. (Which, it should be noted, has a "sexy bikini hottie" as its main attraction.) You'd think that MySpace's pitch to be the ultimate site for music info on the web wouldn't result in flare-ups like this one, but given MySpace Music's clumsy launch and overall crappiness, I guess we shouldn't be too surprised. [...Music Video?'s new MySpace page]

8:53 AM on Wed Nov 26 2008
By Dan Gibson
144 views, 6 comments

Latest by owenmeany: Notfernuthin', but "...Music Video?" is a shitty band name. more »

web 2.no

MySpace Music Warms To The Idea Of Indies (A Little)

There was some controversy around the role of indie labels in MySpace Music (the digital distribution center that was going to change the music world as we know it!); those labels wouldn't receive the same equity in the site's profits as the majors, essentially bringing the same stratification that exists in the old-time music business to the new music economy. MySpace still isn't offering equity to those labels, but it did manage to sign an indie collective featuring such high-profile names as Animal Collective and... Chairlift? More »

11:30 AM on Fri Oct 24 2008
By Dan Gibson
142 views, 2 comments

Latest by Dan Gibson: @defendme: As far as I know, Merlin (as a bundler) handles their digital rights, if only for the UK. Physical distribution and the sort of rights Myspace needs agreements for are often two entirely different things. more »

Oh, That's Annoying After my fourth stream of the new Lily Allen single, an ad for a certain fast-food company that offers its wares to aspiring "Dollar Menunaires" popped up over the player, and I had to click it—and, you know, read it—in order to get things going again. Of course, I didn't realize what was gumming up the works until I clicked over to the tab, curious as far as why the music I was listening to had suddenly stopped. Ah, it's nice to see that MySpace Music is still reaching new heights in the battle to figure out a way to make music on the Internet even less convenient to legally consume than it already is!

1 comment

i'm feeling lucky

Music On The Web: Where It Was Then

Google has made the 2001 version of its search index available to celebrate its 10th birthday (it's the oldest version the site had available—see, people, everyone needs to remember to back up their hard drives now and again!), and I figured it would be fun to plug in a few music-related terms and see what pages came up as the top results, and whether or not those pages were housed in the Internet archive known as the Wayback Machine. The results after the jump. More »

4:30 PM on Wed Oct 1 2008
By Maura Johnston
763 views, 14 comments

Latest by snortin' orton: [web.archive.org] flaming lips' wayne coyne writes a movie! more »

an idolator investigation

MySpace Music Will Not Let You Buy Whatever Popular Single You Like

The just-launched MySpace Music is all about making money for the labels, right? So it would behoove them to have songs that the people want to buy available for purchase on the service, no? Come with me as I try to buy the top 10 songs on this week's Hot Digital Tracks chart by using MySpace's widgetry: More »

11:30 AM on Thu Sep 25 2008
By Maura Johnston
807 views, 5 comments

Oh, and one other thing: note this slice from the MySpace page of the Arcade Fire, who, because they're on an indie, can't use the embedded Amazon MP3 widget and are stuck with Snocap for commerce purposes. Did you guys know that Stephen Pearcy was a member of the Arcade Fire? I mean, I know they have a lot of members, but... [MySpace]

Comment

not necessarily the new product

MySpace Music Gets Ready For A Big Amazon Affiliate Check

A week and change after schedule, the much-ballyhooed MySpace Music—in which the fading social-networking service and the major labels come together in hopes of making at least some money off their technology—has launched. Some clicking around reveals that it's not really that much of a great leap forward as far as the consumer experience goes; the number of streamable songs from artists on participating labels (Universal, Sony, and Warner; EMI has signed on, too) is way up in some cases, thanks to the new site's desire to be the biggest Amazon affiliate ever. But the big innovation—aside from an upgraded music player that also has links to Amazon's MP3 store embedded within—being the ability to create playlists from songs that are streaming on the service. Streaming playlists with Amazon affiliate links attached? It's like 2005 all over again! More »

9:30 AM on Thu Sep 25 2008
By Maura Johnston
411 views, 1 comment

Latest by Josh Mock: "Streaming playlists with Amazon affiliate links attached? It's like 2005 all over again!" Or, you know... a really cluttered and ugly version of Muxtape. more »

it's like games magazine, but less financially sound

MySpace Music Screenshots Leak: Can You Spot The Differences?

MySpace Music—the joint venture between the social-networking site and the major labels that is apparently going to revolutionize digital music by putting opportunities to actually buy songs and other music-related widgetry right into artists' profile pages on the site—is still trudging toward its now-one-week-late launch, and I guess to remind people that we're supposed to be excited about the whole thing, someone leaked a few blurry screenshots of the project. (Kind of odd that the screenshots of a site that's all about making money for Big Music were leaked to the nerd-insider site TechCrunch, which is firmly in the "music should be free at all times" camp, but I'm sure the fine people at MySpace know exactly what they're doing in the PR department. Cough.) What new, exciting changes will you see the next time you visit your favorite band's MySpace page? Let's do a side-by-side comparison of these alleged prototypes and what they're replacing. More »

9:00 AM on Tue Sep 23 2008
By Maura Johnston
524 views, Comment

ominous clouds

MySpace Music Ad Un(?)intentionally Surrounded By Reminders Of Music Business' Glory Days

The probably delayed launch of MySpace Music has coincided with the social-networking service buying ad space in New York's Times Square and on Los Angeles' Sunset Boulevard—because when an online service pours a lot of money into ads, it's always a good sign about the viability of its business, right? But what's more notable about the Times Square ad (pic above, via Songs For Soap) isn't the fact that one of the Jonas Brothers looks like he's hoisting an Urban Sombrero above his head. It's what's in the immediate vicinity of the ads, and how they represent big music's accelerated decline in the new millennium. More »

4:30 PM on Wed Sep 17 2008
By Maura Johnston
712 views, 4 comments

Latest by Defenestrated: I just drove by the half-finished myspace banner thingy on Sunset. All I remember was that Van Halen's name was up there for some reason.... more »

The launch of MySpace Music—you know, the joint venture between MySpace and the major labels that's going to change everything, or at least get the biz some semi-positive press for a couple of days after it launches—is rumored to be delayed until at least next week. Or maybe later. Where can I place a bet on this thing actually launching before the end of the quarter? I'm feeling lucky! [Silicon Alley Insider]

3 comments

MySpace Music, the ass-saving joint venture between the major labels and the buggy place for friends that was supposed to launch today but will instead bow sometime this week, is apparently hoping to raise "well over $100 million" in anticipation of it being worth—hold on to your hats—some $2 billion. (Or more!) Can someone please explain to me how this might work, what with investment banks being kind of in a bad place right now and the concept of people paying for music being in an even worse spot? Sure, the service is locking up a ton of advertisers (can't wait for "Toyota Tuesdays," dude!), but $2 billion for what's essentially a social-networking gloss on an Amazon affiliate program? How does that work—I really need to know. [Techcrunch]

7 comments

web 2.no

An Open Letter To The MySpace Music People

Dear MySpace HR department: I know you guys are having a hard time finding a CEO for your big joint venture with the music business, having asked a ton of people, all of whom have turned you guys down. Sure, the whole structure over there is a mess, with people from Universal Music and News Corp. making demands, and there's no particular structure through which to make money. But if Andy Schuon, formerly of CBS Radio, doesn't take the gig, I'm probably still available. CNet mentions that your company should consider someone from iTunes, and I've compiled quite a few Essentials for the site on a freelance basis. That sort of counts, I think. I don't have all that pride baggage of needing to make the site successful to feed my own ego, so that should help when the whole thing ends up shuttering in a year or two. Give me a call and we can talk benefits. [CNet]

2:30 PM on Thu Sep 4 2008
By Dan Gibson
246 views, 2 comments

Latest by Maura Johnston: @breedavies: "a wider audience for my Myspace Scene Kid Train Wreck blogs" um, LINK???? more »

the end of ideas

Ben Folds Five Jump On The "Let's Have Bands Perform Their Old Albums Live" Bandwagon

Cheeky piano-heavy trio Ben Folds Five have announced that they're reuniting for a show where they play their 1999 album The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner in its entirety. The concert—which takes place in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Sept. 18—is the first installment in the "let's have bands play the albums you love so they can keep raking in the nostalgia cash" series Front To Back, which is sponsored in part by nowwhat.com. (As Al Shipley put it, the site's "named after the phrase bands utter after they stop making good albums and have to just play the old ones." Ha ha! OK, it's actually an ethics-lite site sponsored by the insurance giants at State Farm. Same diff?) Anyway, as with so many music-publicity claims these days, there's something a little strange about the video announcement of the show, which I've embedded after the jump. More »

11:00 AM on Wed Sep 3 2008
By Maura Johnston
611 views, 23 comments

Latest by MrStarhead: And they'll get another name. So nuke another Grandma's apple pie and hang your head in shame. At a solo college gig about five years ago, Ben Folds performed "Army" with the local college marching band. It was actually really awesome. more »

web 2.no

MySpace Music: The Run-Up To Launch Is Getting "Desperate"

The latest problems plaguing MySpace Music, the fading social-networking service's joint venture with the majors that is allegedly going to launch in September: A slew of candidates for the CEO position have flat-out turned down the gig; finding a CEO now, if it happens, would be dicey, since any new bigwigs would likely have enough opinions on how things are going to warrant sweeping changes; and the technology team is getting "all-consuming and desperate" in its attempts to hook the service into MySpace's toothpicks-and-glue infrastructure, because they're sure that any further delays will alienate partners. On the bright side, this will probably make the service's Snocap experiment seem like a resounding success in hindsight. [The Deal via Hypebot]

2:00 PM on Tue Aug 12 2008
By Maura Johnston
153 views, Comment

MySpace music: It's about as well-thought-out as you would expect, i.e. it still doesn't have a CEO or a launch date even though it was announced to much fanfare back in April. Anyone want to offer up odds on this thing actually launching by the end of 2008? [Silicon Alley Insider]

3 comments

Inquiry Is anyone going to Neil Diamond's MySpace show in New York City tonight? I'm debating whether or not it'd be worth even trying to get in line once I'm off the blogging clock, and trying to figure out how the demographics of Neil's audience square with the MySpace demo. (The poster's really pretty. Click to enlarge it.) At least I'll get Home Before Dark, right? Wocka wocka! [MySpace]

5 comments

web 2.no

Alicia Keys Would Like To Get Into Your Social Network

You'd think that someone whose album has sold 3.4 million copies in this arid music marketplace would feel that she doesn't have to promote her album by engaging in silly stunts that only use the commercial breaks on The Hills to show the world that Nick Lachey has more acting chops than she does. But in the case of Alicia Keys, you would be wrong! And her stunting has somehow gotten even more embarrassing—she's recruiting a backup singer (who's 21-30, "physically fit," and "able to dance") via MySpace, perhaps in honor of the site's new karaoke area. This is one of those times when I feel like an elopement would have at least a bit more dignity in the grand publicity-stunt scheme of things. [Billboard]

9:30 AM on Fri May 2 2008
By Maura Johnston
102 views, 1 comment

Latest by owenmeany: She likes chicks, though, so she gets a pass. more »