The as-yet unlaunched MySpace Music will likely partner with Amazon to handle all music ecommerce transactions, we’ve heard from multiple sources. Apple and Rhapsody are also bidding for the business, however, and one source says a final decision hasn’t yet been made.
The project, which combines the music from three of the four major labels (Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group) with $120 million in cash from MySpace along with MySpace’s existing music properties, is set to launch in September.
Music download sales are just one revenue stream for the property. In addition to sales of DRM-free music (singles, albums, playlists), MySpace Music will likely also offer ring tones, concert tickets, merchandise (tshirts, etc.) and branded advertising campaigns.
But downloads are going to be a big part of total revenue, and while margins on music sales are low, the volume could be massive as MySpace directs its traffic to the new site. The big three music providers are likely the only partners who can handle that kind of flow. And Amazon and Rhapsody need market share to effectively compete with market leader Apple/iTunes.
Another factor in bidding is likely the ability of the partner to easily handle signed, independent and unsigned artists. MySpace has 5 million bands with a presence on the site, so the long tail is a factor.
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money is coming to facebook~
As long as they don’t store the music on S3, which goes down and doesn’t care who it takes with it.
I think that this is a good move for Amazon.
TL - http://www.offur.com/BetterThanTechCrunch
^Great “pull” for Amazon. I’m not surprised at all, considering they cater to third-party retailers a lot more than iTunes. Hopefully, Amazon MP3 Store will continue to gain more traction, and hopefully become a formidable competitor to iTunes. Can you say cheaper singles!!
So Myspace Music’s big announcement is…a music store? Am I the only one that’s not really excited about this? I have a million places to sell my music, including the snocap widget on my page (not that I’ve ever actually sold a song), so why do I need more? The fact the you can sell other stuff like merch/tickets is fine, but I really hoped that myspace would come up with something creative and social that I could really use to cultivate a larger fanbase and engage my fans.
This is an interesting move for Amazon, really giving their music service some traction and visibility. Does anybody see Amazon significantly challenging iTunes?
http://www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?RTA=web2
-Ron
This is going to crank the register for Amazon. http://blabtech.blogspot.com
From a services standpoint seems very smart for Amazon. But, as a digital distributor myself, I have yet to see evidence of high-traffic destinations actually generating sales of music downloads. Consumers seem to have a giant wall between their online entertainment and commerce destinations. A brief history:
Circa 2003/04 - PressPlay rebrands under Napster a formerly “free” consumption service. Today, Napster is the most frequently cited takeover target of digital music services.
Circa 2004 - AOL acquires MusicNow to offer download and subscriptions to the massive userbase of 20-25 MM/month music visitors. Today, Musicnow has been shuttered and Rhapsody powers the minimal revenue AOL receives from music.
Circa 2005 - Yahoo launches YMU, promising to turn traffic firehose and $6.99 price point into huge sea change for subscription business. Today, Yang can’t even afford to maintain the servers managing the DRM licenses. Another fun fact - our Yahoo revenue was the most disappointing of all - at about .00025% of iTunes for our clients.
Circa 2005/6 - MTV launches URGE. Crickets.
Today - contrast the above to retail focused sites launching services: Amazon has grown dramatically in first 9 months. Still a fraction of iTunes, but actually growing. Upstarts like AmieStreet demonstrate a real financial trend, and niche sites like Turntable Lab and Beatport servicing specialty markets with retail focus actually do business.
MySpace has yet to say anything about actual experience differentiators. You I can already stream music for free there, provided the browser doesn’t crash, and you remember to turn off the bands 15 other Reverbnation, Musicane, RockYou and NeverStopsFlashingForNoReason widgets.
A long comment, but final thoughts: with social advertising CPMs at rock bottom prices, there is little guarantee that MySpace is even demonstrating advertising value to companies to adequately cover even streaming costs of that much media.
DashGo’s statistics tracking monitors streams for bands on MySpace, Last.FM and YouTube among others. Once a band reaches a certain threshold - say around 1 million total streams, Last.fm and YouTube traffic tends to outpace MySpace, perhaps demonstrating that MySpace isn’t yet a compelling destination to consume music in the long run.
That’s the skeptic in me. But I hope they find a way to really deliver music to their users in a way that works great and is universally embraced. I hope we don’t see the Rhapsody powered MySpace music store in 15 months, as much as I like Rhapsody. Consumers need good options.
This makes perfect sense, Myspace seem to have their heads screwed on around the right way unlike Facebook and their connect nonsense.
Ron - With the help of third party retailers like Myspace, I see Amazon garnering a 15-20% share of the digital download market within the next two years. That’s pretty good for a store that launched in fall ‘07!
Hmmmmm. Amazon s3 seems to crash quite a bit. Are they really relying solely on amazon? My guess is that the answer is “sort of”.
This is a good job for Amazon but none to user of services. I’m not surprised at all. This transaction reminds me for a shift. However money is coming to facebook!
It would be nice if Indie hip hop and rap artist, and R&B artist can get a REAL chance that allows them to get noticed. Indie is the way to go. This could be another step for the indie and the end of major labels. ITunes def helped as you can distribute like the majors. Already the production side is available. I get tracks and beats from http:.//www.beatslocker.com and they are totally hit major sound and great quality hip hop and rap beats. That was never available before….So that side is covered where as before only the major labels had access to these producers.. I already have airplay and Uni has contacted me! But in the end it would be nice to stay indie and keep the cash…all that remains to conquer is promo and marketing.. distribution is even covered …. when that happens majors are truly over!
It would be nice if Indie hip hop and rap artist, and R&B artist can get a REAL chance that allows them to get noticed. Indie is the way to go. This could be another step for the indie and the end of major labels. ITunes def helped as you can distribute like the majors. Already the production side is available. I get tracks and beats from :
http://www.beatslocker.com
and they are totally hit major sound and great quality hip hop and rap beats. That was never available before….So that side is covered where as before only the major labels had access to these producers.. I already have airplay and Uni has contacted me! But in the end it would be nice to stay indie and keep the cash…all that remains to conquer is promo and marketing.. distribution is even covered …. when that happens majors are truly over!
I want to listen to new bands on MySpce.
I want to buy their music online.
I don’t go to MySpace.
I go to http://www.spacejammer.com
With Space Jammer I can buy MySpace Music everywere, not only at Amazon.
wat’s good