Thursday, April 03, 2008

MySpace + Record Labels

MySpace and Record Companies Create Music Site - NY Times

SAN FRANCISCO — In the latest effort by the ailing music industry to bolster its declining prospects, three of the four major music companies have struck a deal with MySpace to start an music Web site.

As part of the deal, MySpace will spin out its popular MySpace Music service as an independent joint venture in partnership with Universal Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group. EMI, the fourth major label, is not a part of the deal at this time, but people involved in the negotiations said it would probably join soon. The music companies will own minority stakes in the venture and will make their entire music catalogs available.....

4 comments:

Amiri said...

This is a blatant attempt on the part of the labels to raid what was ostensibly a home for independent artists, but it shows how desperate they are to maintain their declining market power. And the fact that MySpace is willing to let them raid their user base shows that MySpace is not really serious about the independent market. So where does that leave the artists on MySpace, who will now have to cut through even more distractions as the majors spam and shill their artists all over the site? It's looking bad for MySpace, in my opinion. The labels just don't like Apple's deal, and they're greedy and want to charge more money for their subpar product. That's normal for them. But what matters is that this changes nothing for the artists or the fans, and it may even be worse for both.

fourstones said...

isn't myspace owned by this guy?

nuff said, no?

Gurdonark said...

The "majors" can go and do what they like, but their day is done in their current configuration. We in the CC world can focus instead on finding the music we like--and important quests, like saving classical music by spreading the word, and spreading the idea of a sharing economy for the forms of music we make and love.

RSVP said...

GO CREATIVE COMMONS