News

MySpace to roll out more advanced music service in September

4:02 p.m. · July 24, 2008 · by Ethan Stanislawski

MySpace has had some weird identity issues of late. While still the dominant player in social media market for music, MySpace has been rapidly losing its share of the general social networking audience to Facebook. To better utilize its strengths, MySpace is launching a more advanced music service in the vein of iTunes, Aamazon and a slew of other newplayers. Realizing that 65% of its users already post music files, MySpace Music will now offer free streaming services, paid song downloads, ringtones, merchandise, and concert tickets. It's a pretty comprehensive service, and should be an interesting addition to the digital music battle.

There's no track record for success for a digital store selling products other than music downloads (Insound may have come the closest), but already Hot Topic and MySpace are trying it out. And like the Bulls and Yankees of the 90s, iTunes is still the champ of the digital music market until someone can officially topt them. With whom MySpace is trying to compete is a bit unclear, as the NewsCorp property seems unbeatable in its dominance of the social music media market. But there's a still a niche to be conceivably carved here.

[Fortune]