The is reporting that MySpace will unveil a joint music venture with at least three major music companies within 5 days.
News Corp (which owns MySpace), Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group will each have a stake in the venture, say Reuters sources.
has more details in that Universal will receive “a ‘huge’ cash payment in return for settling the 2006 lawsuit, perhaps in the $100 million range.”
“It’s really creating a robust monetization component to MySpace and
having a focused music effort that could be the MTV of a new
generation,” said a music industry executive to Reuters who asked not to be
identified before the deal is formally announced.
MySpace to become the “new MTV”? As long as MySpace doesn’t lose its way (like MTV did), this could pose to be a very significant development in the world of music discovery for future generations. It’s up to the execs over at Sirius and XM (and the entire radio industry in general) to make sure they’re part of that movement.
[, TechCrunch, SAI]
UPDATE: PaidContent has more details on the actual service:
- Downloads will be DRM-free
- Video/audio streaming will be ad-supported
- Store will include merchandise and ticketing
- With 30 million uniques monthly and 5 million bands on the site “we’re not starting from scratch, it’s a big heads start.”
- Not just for major music companies, but will be ways for unsigned artists to sign on.
- There will be a mobile content solution as well. (important)
- Pricing? Competitive with iPod? MySpace knows they’re
playing to an iPod-dominated base. DeWolfe: “Our intent is to make this
content very portable and to give our users access to the content in
the format that they want. To whatever extent we can leverage our
environment via iPods, we’ll look to do that.”
This is very significant in terms of music industry. Remember, this is a joint venture with the three largest record labels (and possibly soon to include EMI, that’s up to EMI to decide apparently). Whatever opportunities the RIAA feels they missed out on with online music - be it the original Napster, or now Apple iTunes - they’re going to want to make up ground a lot of lost ground. This will be their avenue.
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