MySpace officially announced the
creation of MySpace Music on Thursday, a new music service set to
launch this month as a joint venture between MySpace and three of the
four major record labels (excluding EMI, for now). MySpace Music will
offer ad-supported
streaming music, playlist building, DRM-free downloads,
ringtones, and ticket sales -- as well as a few hazy futures for some
others in the digital music industry.
Five People/Companies Who Should Be Worried
Apple: Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) is still commanding the digital
download space with iTunes and, as yet, has had no real viable threat to its throne. If
MySpace Music succeeds in selling DRM-free music -- something Apple gave up on a
long time ago -- it could emerge as a serious competitor.
Apple also announced
recently
that it may replace its pay-per-download model with a plan where users
would pay a premium on their devices or a monthly subscription for free
downloads -- a great prospect. But, according to The New York Times,
MySpace's CEO Chris DeWolfe says subscriptions, as well as ad-supported
downloads, are a consideration for MySpace as well. (So. Who knows...
This may be the thing to shake Apple to its core! HA! You see what I did there?)
Imeem: MySpace Music will incorporate ad-supported
streaming music and playlist building, a model currently deployed by imeem
-- a social, music-discovery site. Currently imeem allows users to
transplant their playlists to various social networking sites,
including MySpace and Facebook . But will MySpace users
stick around on imeem if the same services are being offered at home?
Facebook: Will this have any impact on Facebook's
popularity? Facebook has long been hinting about the idea of Facebook Music,
but nothing concrete has emerged. And, even if it did, particularly now,
and considering MySpace's presence in music from its own inception, could Facebook really compete? Probably not.
(That is... unless Facebook Music lets you fling virtual sheep -- or, better, virtual bras -- at your favorite artists... Obviously
that would be a huge selling point.)
I still have an unused Nano that I’ve been meaning to take
advantage of but, I haven’t made the conscious effort to take it out and set it
up.
However, when I do, I certainly wouldn’t be leaning towards
MySpace Music as a source for my songs.Perhaps,
I am giving them an unfair bias but, if it is anything like MySpace, I will
definitely stay away from it.
Aside from the unappealing graphical presentation of MySpace,
I was not too fond of the daily spam that I was receiving from the site.
Maybe, MySpace Music will be different but, for now, I will
definitely first venture to the iTunes store where simple characterizes the
site.
Keeping in view that music cds have been a diminishing trend what can be the alternative models of revenue for the musirc records companies.
Audio Advertisements can be one. A short audio advertisement can be appended to a song freely available.
I am not sure whether this would be a very profiting technique but one thing is for sure. New revenue models for music records companies is the need of the time
Back in the day (which was in 2002, by the way), I remembered thinking that the losers in the music download scene would not be musicians but, rather, retailers such as Best Buy and Borders, and sure enough, as iTunes has grown, those retailers have seen that cash cow part of their business dry up. I teach an MBA class and each semester, at some point, I ask the students how many of them have bought CDs in the previous six months(one or two hands at most) vs. downloading (virtually all of them).
So, I think retailers should be added to Nicole's "worry" list. In fact, soon enough, I think we will only see CDs sold at truck stops and convenience stores, replacing the $5.99 cassettes they still sell.
I also recently saw someone touting Amazon as a true competitor to iTunes and when I went to download the new R.E.M. album on Tuesday for $13.99 (funny how the price now is creeping up to retail levels without any packaging or distribution costs), I checked out Amazon and saw the price at $9.99. I thought that was a big enough reason to change until I saw that I would need to download additional software from Amazon to make this purchase, so I went back to iTunes. iTunes makes downloading so easy, and consumer behavior takes people there, so I really can't see MySpace making a dent unless there is a huge price advantage. Plus, a lot of bands and musicians already put their own music on MySpace. In the end, I just see the MySpace deal as a non-starter.
Oh, and to the point raised by Experiences about the music industry needing to keep users at the center of their business model, I think it's better to say "BEGIN putting users at the center of their business model." The whole music distribution industry just drifts along, and I don't think the music industry could have mis-managed this anymore than they have, beginning with treating the Internet as a passing fad when donloading began.
Why should a user have to be a member of a social network site to buy music ? Surely not because of friend's recommendations because people can be friends and have fairly different tastes in music.
Will a social network with its emphasis on so many features , provide a single unified music experience from music discovery, concerts, downloads for various media ? Current evidence does not seem to suggest that. There is quite a bit of spam-ware available. Explore the simplistic feel of Live Plasma for discovery
Availability of music online is limited to certain traditional markets such as US, Uk and some european regions. The rest of the regions really seem to have no services to talk of.
From a personal stand point, there are far too many sounds and songs that are not available to me. It does seem like opportunity lost for the music industry.
Mobile usage is certainly very exciting thus the platform of choice could be the mobile platform. Consider this
Handset Providers - Apple and Nokia have already got mobile versions of their music stores. I am not sure about Sony Ericsson though.
Telcos are interested , they have seen their revenues from music related VAS but how they manage partnerships and content would be worth watching. Some even have music related brands such as Virgin.
But overall, it still seems that the opportunity has not been leveraged by anyone.
The music industry has to identify its blue oceans by keeping the user at the center of their business model.
Music is an experience and yet the buying and exploring music bit is anything but a good experience.
We are sending music to other solar systems and galaxies but people on earth seem to struggle to find a way of playing the sound file they have just purchased or tried to purchase..
Give the customer the music they want, when they want and it should work on the multiple devices that the customer has.
Figuring out how and keeping it simple , is for the people who run the business .
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
Ahh, the holiday season is upon us: People have begun bargain hunting, department stores are donning premature decorations, turkeys are being shot to death, and email inboxes everywhere are being graced with season-appropriate promotional materials so absurd, one might think they were actually written by the clinically insane.
Considering President Obama went and took the Nobel Peace Prize this year (attention hog, much?), Internet Evolution had to settle for a nomination for the second best prize in the world: a MIN Editorial & Design award. And we're happy to say that we won. Big time.
NEW YORK -- Web 2.0 Expo -- Here at the Javits Center in New York City, several industry innovators have come out to take the stage at the Web 2.0 Expo. But some are having a hard time keeping the audience's attention. The culprit? What else? Twitter.
The debate over whether Google is fairly aggregating newspaper content online has been going on for a while, with Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. leading the discourse. Typically it's followed a consistent pattern: Murdoch complains about Google stealing its content to no real benefit to his company, someone suggests hiding the content from Google, and things get quiet on the News Corp. side of the room.
While Google introduces its new Chrome OS (which I'm hearing will be widely available in one year? Did I mishear that?), IBM announced 10 new products today to help companies using IBM System z mainframe technology.
Smarter Collaboration: How to Thrive in a Challenging Business Environment Market conditions are changing faster than ever, and organizations need to improve their agility and adaptability in order to provide better service and improve processes. The ability to work with customers, business partners, and employees as effectively as possible - while at the same time holding down costs - is a key to success. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
Evidence shows that you can tweet too much. Sites and services like Twitter and Facebook are a good place to reach your audience, but think quality over quantity.
A digital content market is emerging. Only two things are known about it: the first is that at some point the Internet will primarily become a paid network. The second known factor is that there are innumerable variables in the digital content market that have yet to be worked out. It’s not known, for example, exactly how users will pay for content (micropayments, subscriptions, bartering of farm animals, other).
Bad news! By eliminating the world’s digital divide we’re likely to create a new divide: the information divide, where we end up creating a two-tier Internet where access to 'quality' content is controlled and charged for by mega-corporations, and the gulf between information haves and have-nots is entirely dependent on how much money they have. This is, of course, an almost exact inversion of the current situation on the Internet – where access is expensive and content is free.
As enterprises leap into the Web 2.0 world of blogging, commenting, and social networking, just 'being there' won't deliver ROI. You may want a 'Web Evangelist' to systematically harvest the feedback in order to polish your product or service.
Good news! The cost of Internet infrastructure, services, and access devices has been plummeting at an accelerating rate over the last 10 years and will approach a point in the next 20 years where these technologies become so fantastically cheap that ubiquitous, low-cost, high-speed networks, storage, and access devices will effectively eliminate the digital divide for most of the world's population.
The problem with telepresence is that it's not universally accepted, because video calling isn't. While we can all do video calling, we also apparently worry too much about how we look. If we want HD telepresence in our future, we have to dress down, mess up our hair, and dive into our online life.
Industry initiatives and government stimulus funds are giving enterprise software vendors a great opportunity to help build out and manage smart grid technologies.
The problem with telepresence is that it's not universally accepted, because video calling isn't. While we can all do video calling, we also apparently worry too much about how we look. If we want HD telepresence in our future, we have to dress down, mess up our hair, and dive into our online life.
The US loses about $20 billion a year on pirated software, movies, and music. But public policy can help stem the tide of digital theft. For example, France has recently passed a 'three strikes and you’re out' law, whereby if after two warning letters an individual continues to download pirated software then his Internet access will be cut off. US policy makers should consider adopting similar policies.
Financial management planning does not need to include Voodoo economics, but it does help to tap into the knowledge base of your team through some sort of real-time system. We explore your options.
When Reiter gets incensed over incompetent Verizon FiOS order-taking and support, he broadcasts it via Twitter. Did it do any good? How should your company offer Twitter support? Watch this for all the answers.
The successor to the BlackBerry Bold 9000 – the Bold 9700 – will be available soon in the US. Is it worth upgrading? Reiter's got one, and offers advice.