[FA Worldmusic] Fwd: myspace music store

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 MySpace Will Open Digital Music Store


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By REUTERS
Published: September 2, 2006


MySpace, the popular online community site, said yesterday that it would
make its first move into the digital music business by selling songs from
nearly three million unsigned bands.


MySpace is the latest company to try to challenge Apple Computer's iTunes
Music Store, but unlike many fledgling rivals, it already has 106 million
users, as well as the backing of its parent company, the News Corporation.


"The goal is to be one of the biggest digital music stores out there," the
co-founder of MySpace, Chris DeWolfe, said. "Everyone we've spoken to
definitely wants an alternative to iTunes and the iPod. MySpace could be
that alternative."


In the last year, MySpace.com has become the most-visited Internet address
among Web users in the United States, according to Hitwise, which monitors
Web traffic, with mainly teenagers and young adults using the site to
socialize and to share music and photographs.


By the end of the year, Mr. DeWolfe said, MySpace will offer independent
bands that have not signed with a record label a chance to sell their music
on the site. MySpace says it has nearly three million bands showcasing their
music.


Songs can be sold on the bands' MySpace pages and on fan pages, in MP3
digital file format, which works on most digital players including Apple's
market-dominating iPod.


The bands will decide how much to charge for each song after accounting for
MySpace's distribution fee, said Rusty Rueff, the chief executive of Snocap,
which will manage the service.


Snocap provides digital licensing and copyright management services and was
started by the founder of Napster, Shawn Fanning. Mr. Rueff said the "small"
distribution fee was not yet fixed.


EMI, the Universal Music Group, the Warner Music Group and Sony BMG own
about 75 percent of mainstream popular music. Most of this music is
available only on MySpace for live streaming as a promotion.