Thursday, September 11, 2008

MySpace music store to go head to head with iTunes

Networking website MySpace has announced it will be opening its long-awaited online music store later this month. In a deal that works with the music from three of the big four major labels (Warner Bros., Sony BMG & Universal Music), the store is said to allow fans the ability to download and stream millions of songs that will include new music as well as the back catalog from the three labels. To try and seperate themselves from the pack of the leading digital music retailers like Apple’s iTunes and Amazon’s MP3 Store, the MySpace Music site will let fans share the music through their pages and give them the ability to build communal playlists. Through the site music fans will also be able to purchase merchandise and tickets to concerts and events.
The site’s co-founder Tom Anderson said .....“It’s not the same kind of listening you do with iTunes,” .... “It’s about sharing songs with your friends and checking out what they are listening to.”
The songs will be made available as unprotected MP3s, and prices are said to be competitive with the other music services.

It still remains unclear how all the indie and unsigned artists fit in to MySpace's new model, which leaves many to wonder if millions of fans and artists that helped build MySpace's music community will be left out in the cold.

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