How MySpace Music could beat iTunes (says The Industry Standard) - Coming soon: Google Apps for Musicians and Artists

Here is some food for thought: How MySpace Music could beat iTunes | The Industry Standard.

Quotes / Comments:

"But MySpace Music has a chance to beat iTunes. And the secret to its potential victory lies in the hands of the musicians that the social network has supported since MySpace's inception... The bottom line is this: If MySpace provides bands with the names and email addresses of all the people who download their music through MySpace Music, MySpace will beat iTunes."

My comment: the questions is WHO Myspace Music will empower: the musicians and the users (by connecting them), or the major record labels that are now in bed with them. Both maybe a tough mission.

"Providing fan data will also get MySpace the support of more mainstream musicians who are also realizing the importance of owning the names -- and contact information -- of their fans. Musicians like 50 Cent are starting their own social networking sites (his is called Thisis50.com), because, as 50 Cent's new media director acknowledges, "The thing that separates Thisis50 from MySpace is we control the e-mail database. We can e-mail members if we want to."

My comment: good point but it's not just email addresses.  Really what we are talking about here is Google Apps for Musicians and Artists (and music fans). THAT is what we need (and it's being build in various places...;) - but until there is major funding for this kind of offering, and until the music market is really 'flattened' i.e. open and transparent we won't see it succeed.

Update: the author of this piece, Melissa Chang, has some very pertinent additional comments here

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Comments

[Ethan Bauley]

Yes, this is what's happening...I also posted on this (one day earlier ;-) over at TuneCore:

http://tunecore.typepad.com/tunecorner/2008/04/musical-freedom.html

Kind regards,

Ethan