TV has once again trumped the music industry by cutting a deal to sell episodes of Fox’s "24" on MySpace.(Reuters) For $1.99 they are selling something available free on TV and Bit-Torrent to the millions that spend hours a day on the site.The music industry would rather sue kids who aren’t willing to spend $10-15 on a new release than figuring out how to give them something worth paying for. Along the way, has the industry made
music, which helped fuel much of MySpace’s incredible success, something that can only be given away for free?
So far initiatives to monetize music on MySpace has been limited to selling compilation CD’s which have flopped.
Instead of staying stuck in a "give us 99 cents or sue ’em" paradigm why not look at MySpace as an opportunity to monetize music discovery. "If you like what you heard for free; here’s a link for a 25 cent (or even 10 cent) high quality download"
or "Give us $5 and here’s 8 songs and an interview with the band plus a coupon for $5 off a t-shirt bight at a show". "Buy something and get a ‘ticket’ to an ‘exclusive’ MySpace online listening party with the band answering questions in chat room". In other words, use the technology rather than fight it.
And even this kind of thinking is old school. The cool kids – the ones that start the trends and then tell their less cool friends about them – are already bored with MySpace and onto something else. Will the new music industry be smart enough to follow them?
