Last Thursday John Battelle sat down with MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe and Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman to discuss the future of music.
Some interesting things were said, including remarks by Bronfman that Warner will only sign new artists if they agree to give the label a cut of all possible revenue streams. But the biggest story about the talk, by far, was this: MySpace may be creating a music device.
At least that’s what dozens of blogs and mainstream news outlets reporte. A sample:
- Reuters: Is MySpace dreaming of a music device?
- Reuters: MySpace could develop digital music player (Reuters liked the story so much they wrote two articles)
- The Telegraph: MySpace rival to iPod is ‘possible’, says chief executive
- About.com: MySpace MP3 Player in the Works? (”It is reportedly a distinct possibility for the future”)
- Business Journal: Report: MySpace hints at iPod competitor
The source for the stories: DeWolfe, when asked “Do you think, or as you plot…the future of MySpace…do you think there is a place where MySpace might create a device?” said only “Uh, it’s possible, right now we’re just focusing on the service itself.”
The video is below, and DeWolfe’s tone and body language suggest he was simply being polite. I contacted MySpace, wondering if big press was tipped off to read more into the statement than appears reasonable. They declined to comment.
Judge for yourself. In my opinion, there’s nothing there.
Waste of time. Do what you do best, which in this case is unfortunately myspace.
Hmm seems like the internet is no longer big enough for these guys, just like the paypal founder who has gone into making cars
Agreed. Every new “iPod killer” only makes the iPod look that much better.
I’m not so sure that it’s a waste of time. You might have said to Apple “stick to making computers”. Myspace has one of the biggest traffic web sites in the world. Whatever they choose to launch, a bazillion people will immediately become aware of it.
If this is combined with the ability to stream or download music from myspace onto a player, plus download revenues… with all the myspace artists cut in as affiliates for promoting the player….? They already have a unique angle into the market in a way that Apple had a unique angle into the market before expanding horizontally with itunes and ipod.
I don’t know the ins and outs but I’d imagine they play around with ideas like this all the time.
No notable tech writers covered this, jut big media who don’t get any of this.
If MySpace is considering creating another music device, they should go to great lengths to make it stand out from all the many high quality devices that are now flooding the market.
In this case, branding alone can not compete with the giants.
What can they do to make their device unique? What additional features or developments can they offer.
Could they combine their device into a music social network of sorts to make it irresistible to the Web 2.0 crowd. This would require some sort of optional Internet Access for those wishing to share and communicate while listening to music or discovering new videos.
Perhaps they could even partner with YouTube.
Heck, our band hasn’t been able to even UPLOAD a new song or any pictures for months!
Seems some of us are locked out of the mix. I thought it was supposed to be about new music and a new way.
Nutz!
I often wonder why people think MySpace is the future of Music. I think the site design is klunky at best, VERY slow, and it’s so difficult to locate information for a particular night unless you want to visit your entire list of friend profiles (musicians).
Enter, the Madtown Lounge – a much more logical way to streamline how independent music information is shared with music fans.
Record traffic for 24 months and counting!
Allen, founder
http://madtownlounge.com
Myspace is tanking as Facebook is growing. Look at the Alexa traffic graphs:
http://www.alex...ils/myspace.com
Myspace users are trickling toward Facebook and sooner or later Myspace just won’t matter to investors. It’s a horribly designed and poorly managed site. All they have is a massive user base, which they’ll eventually lose to the competition.
My startup: http://www.RantBlogger.com – “Get Paid to Complain”
Myspace is becoming obsolete.
Facebook is taking all of the users.
The Myspace interface is horrible to say the least…..Takes 30 seconds for a page to load and then you get a carnival of ads.
MySpace thinks they are revolutionary? Streaming music? hahahahaha. I literally laughed out loud when I saw them on the cover of Fast Company..
Good luck guys!! You will need it.
myspace better stick to social networks they dont want none of apple.
Every company has to evolve with the times and myspace will certainly have to find a way.
Maybe music is the way but if it is myspace with have to start cleaning up the site to make myspace music more user friendly; if you go on myspace music it is hard to find a band since the update before you just go to side and type in the name select the city zip code etc now you have to type the name in the search bar then do everything you could do before as the first step now has become the 2 step. Before the main music page showed useful stuff now its just a bunch of ad’s for major label artist new albums, with useful content at the very bottom of the page, Hell even the main page doesnt even show much content for there own artist, usually companies pimp there products all over there site.
Myspace seem to be doing stuff to make user have to go though an extra step to get to stuff compared to the old design of the site, some stuff has progressed for the better while most has gone backwards
Myspace has been losing the battle with Facebook but dont forget something will come eventually and facebook with become the one on the losing side; its a cycle and someone else will become top dog eventually.
No way they are developing a device. The fact is, the iPod killer already exists and it’s called the smartphone. MySpace Music centers around streaming music across the web, so anyone with an internet enabled device will be able to use it. The future of MySpace isn’t hardware, it’s mobile accessibility.
hey mike–can you guys put up the whole video please?
thanks
http://web20sum...v/file/1446685/
thanks a bunch–didn’t see it there yesterday
I would like to request a new post please.
Some people still click refresh on TC every 30 minute, even on Sunday, ok, so wake up and get with the program.
Myspace making moves again?
I respect Myspace honestly, theyre one of the few web successes that are willing to evolve. They make money and they look good doing it. Im all on for someone to give apple a run for its money. It is a huge mountain to climb though. That i can guarantee!
Btw
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