All Eyes Are On MySpace Monday. But Will We Like What We See?
LAUNCH DELAYED: DETAILS & UPDATE HERE
COMMENTARY: Most signs point to a Monday launch…or at least sometime next week. It’s big news when the top ranked social networking site makes a move and music is already central to it’s community. iLike and others are even mounting big announcements of their own. What do we think we know so far about MySpace Music?
- Amazon will do download fulfilment which means deep catalog from the start.
- Ad-supported streaming is a cornerstone, but those deals with most indies aren’t done.
- Playlists will be added for individual users
- EMI is still a holdout
Anything that enhances the music experience on a high traffic site is good news for music marketers. But the millions of fans that use MySpace don’t think of it as a place to buy – if they buy music at all. That perception will be a major hurdle for MySpace to overcome.And integration of anything new into an eco-system filled with custom designs and layouts could be both a visual and technical nightmare.
With all heads turned in their direction and a parent company expecting return on investment, MySpace Music has left itself no room for mistakes.
This is sounding increasingly like a hollow PR stunt. I think it’s going to backfire, but I also think MySpace’s margin is so huge that a backfire won’t matter much. What matters to them is keeping their name in the news cycle, and as cynical as this “launch” is, it’s worked beautifully so far.