MySpace Attempts to Corner the Free-Music Market (Pay Attention)

[Mumbo Sauce]

**Articles such as this tend to fly under the radar in the hip-hop community. Many artists are reactionary instead of visionary - WATCH what's going on around you in your industry if you truly plan to eat from music alone.

MySpace Music, the major-label-backed online service slated for a summer rollout, has grand plans of delivering "all the music in the world" for free.
Once that mission is accomplished, according to MySpace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe, the cash will follow as music fans turn MySpace Music into a money-making machine with multiple revenue streams.
Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music are all on board for MySpace Music (and MySpace honchos are talking to major-label holdout EMI). The new service will strip out band pages from the original MySpace site -- which just happens to be the world's most popular social-networking site -- and stream full-length songs and videos for free. MySpace Music will peddle DRM-free downloads, ringtones, concert tickets, T-shirts and more. In an in-depth interview with Wired.com, DeWolfe spoke about working with major labels, bringing indies into the stable, taking on iTunes and killing piracy with convenience.
Wired: What makes you think MySpace can successfully rival Apple's iTunes, which is now the top music retailer in the United States?
Chris DeWolfe: We're not trying to compete with iTunes. A lot of people think that we are. Downloads are just one of five or six revenue streams. We're really trying to create a social community experience that our users are asking us for, and it just happens that one of the components includes downloads.
Wired: So, what is MySpace Music all about?
DeWolfe: It's not just a download service -- it's a service that marries the largest music community with the most comprehensive catalog of music online. Users can discover and consume virtually any piece of music for free on the internet, or if they want to make it portable they can buy it.... Modern music is all about letting users define their experience. And now, with this new model, we're letting them do that and the music industry is able to make money at the same time.

Read the complete article at the link below: http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/news/2008/04/myspace_music