If you had bet the under following The New York Post’s rumor that MySpace’s iTunes competitor was launching last week, you would’ve been a loser. Today, Reuters is giving the gambler in you another chance, reporting that the social network “will unveil a music joint venture with at least three major music companies within 5 days.”
What’s new in today’s report is that Universal Music Group has supposedly signed onto the venture, leaving EMI as the only major record label not rumored to be a part of MySpace Music. The service, which would feature MP3 downloads, concert tickets, ringtones, and artist-related merchandise, could be a huge revenue source for MySpace and parent company News Corp, as the social network’s biggest strength continues to be its music section and artist pages.
If you are to believe Google – who blames recent lackluster earnings on weakness in advertising on social networks – it’s also a needed move for MySpace to start realizing the revenue potential of its tens of millions of eyeballs. As for MySpace’s chief rival – Facebook - they seem to be content with getting their slice of the digital music pie by linking users to iTunes via artist pages for the time being.
This also comes at a time when artists are increasingly launching their own social networks to cut out the middlemen – a trend reported on in-depth earlier today by Sarah Perez.
译文:
报道：MySpace音乐现随时启用……真的
如果上周你因为纽约邮报关于
MySpace的iTunes的竞争者将浮出水面的传闻而打了赌，那么你将是输者。今天，
路透社给了打赌的人另一个机会，它报道称：社会网络在五天内将要揭开一个音乐合资公司的神秘面纱，而这家公司至少由三家主要音乐公司构成。
今天的报道中的新的情况是：环球音乐集团已如预料的一样同意成立公司，而EMI公司是唯一一家没有如传闻一样成为MySpace一部分的知名企业。这个由MP3下载、演唱会门票、铃声以及明星周边商品为特色的服务可能成为MySpace及其母公司News Corp的一项巨大收入来源，因为社会网络最大的力量继续集中在它的音乐部门和艺人页面。
如果你相信谷歌——它责备社会网络广告的惨淡收入——MySpace也很有必要开始意识到自己拥有几百万的用户潜在的收入。至于MySpace的主要对手—Facebook—他们似乎满足于数码音乐项目的收入，他们使用户通过艺人页面链接到iTunes.
这总会遇到这样的时候，艺人们渐渐发表他们自己的社会网络，从而踢除中间商。这个趋势是基于Sarah Perez早前的深入
报道。