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? More »
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. More »
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. More »
Spammy social-networking site MySpace has rolled out MySpace Karaoke, which manages to be both slightly better and much worse than you might imagine. The upside: The song selection is good, including multiple Samantha Fox tracks. The downside: No apparent Mac support (to which Maura said “BOOOOO oh man i am PISSED” via IM). My first assumption was that MySpace’s entry into the karaoke ring was just another reason for loners to never leave the comforting glow of their monitors for the outside world. But the “record” feature allows us all to share in the singing-career delusions of others!
Hey, older music fans! Is Mojo a little “critical” for your tastes? Does VH1 not devote enough time to remembering when? Tired of falling for intriguing young women in bikinis who turn out to be viruses? Well now there’s a social networking site designed to do nothing but blast your brain with memories of cultural events that happened before 1990. Getback.com will remind you of stuff, and then introduce you to other people who remember stuff! And don’t worry about getting confused by all that cutting and pasting, that’s for kids! Classic songs and movie trailers are already on the site, just waiting for you to put your name next to them. A Facebook for your generation–a generation that’s already dead.
Are indie bands going to get screwed by MySpace Music, the social-networking site’s joint venture with Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group? If by “screwed” you mean “not getting as much of a share of the ad revenues as the big boys, if they get any at all,” then the answer is “of course.” Listening Post had a little chat with MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe on the topic of spreading MySpace Music’s wealth, and he said that there were just too many bands out there to give a share of ad revenue to every single group of guitar-toting bros with a page on his site. And if they don’t like it, they should remember how they should be happy that their bands got access to the “free platform” that MySpace has to offer, what with its unparalleled ability to connect bands with fans from all over the world… and then make those fans think that they’re spammers after their accounts get phished.
So, MySpace Music! It’s going to change the distribution of recorded music as we know it… or at the very least entice people into giving their credit card numbers over to the site, thus setting themselves up for a lifetime of fake Macy’s gift card offers. No, but seriously, it’s going to be an incredible leap forward for the entire industry, because it’ll give money to artists and labels and allow people to listen to said artists’ and labels’ music for free, right? Well, actually, that whole “giving money” part may not be true for the many independent labels out there whose bands account for millions of pages on the site, but who aren’t part of the joint venture that MySpace has entered into with three of the four major labels. A letter from the indie-leaning digital distributor The Orchard outlines some of the concerns that those not affiliated with a major label might have about the service:
“We believe the Web is becoming more social, and MySpace Music is a new way of consuming music online,” said Chris DeWolfe, co-founder and chief executive of MySpace. Like… paid downloads! And ad-supported streams! More »
The NME–which has taken to branding itself as “The World’s Fastest Music News Service,” which I guess is their way of sidestepping allegations about its accuracy–will hold the American version of its Shockwaves Awards on April 23 in Los Angeles, and you aren’t invited. But don’t worry! You can stream the whole thing on MySpace, thanks to one of those partnership deals that press releases trumpet as “exclusive” and jaded eyes read as “last-ditch attempts to make people on this side of the pond care about a brand that doesn’t really mean much to them unless they’re really into overly breathless prose and/or Billy Childish.”
MySpace’s digital-music joint venture is reportedly bringing Sony BMG and Warner Music Group aboard this week; the service, which will allegedly launch later this year, is expected to incorporate both paid downloads and ad-supported streaming. More »
