So Much For MySpace Music Revolutionizing The Business

from the it's-what-now? dept

Fri, Apr 3rd 2009 2:43am — Mike Masnick

Last year, we found it amusing that some in the press were claiming that MySpace Music was going to be "the most significant rollout of a digital-music service since Apple's iTunes." As we noted at the time, the whole concept behind MySpace Music seemed destined to fail, because no one seemed willing to admit that they had to compete with piracy. So rather than design a better product, they made yet another totally lame "official" online music service. And, like pretty much every other such service, users have almost entirely ignored it. Even the folks running MySpace Music are now admitting that the product sucks:

"It was plumbing and a playlist. But it wasn't overly social, it wasn't deep enough, and we didn't really empower the users to do what they wanted to do."

That's from Courtney Holt -- the guy who's now in charge, but who wasn't hired until after the launch. But, of course, the company has already blown the ability to get a lot of attention with a big launch. It totally overplayed that hand (though, many mainstream reporters bought into the hype totally). While Holt has plans for a total redo of the service, it's going to become increasingly difficult to dig themselves out of the ditch from being "the most significant rollout of digital-music service" that almost no one cared about.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: myspace music, record labels
Companies: myspace, myspace music

9 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

One Disciple, 3 Apr 2009 @ 3:49am

Queue Weird Harold
"See Mike this is a perfect example of how copyright is innovating the business." No seriously that is what I expected but he wasn't under the bridge yet.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
sethaurus, 3 Apr 2009 @ 4:33am

And needless to say, I had the last laugh.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
R. Miles, 3 Apr 2009 @ 4:34am

Idiots.
Is MySpace still around? I haven't seen an episode of Dateline to even notice.

If C. Holt thinks the product was crap, he should understand no amount of "redo" will fix the problem.

It's a networking social site, not iTunes. Know the difference now before you waste tons of money again.

Idiots.

Soon to be posted: Wanted - professional web developer needed to enhance web project. Must be proficient in stupidity, handling executive decisions without providing experienced input, and massive levels of stress. Salary will be significantly lower than national mean due to licensing fee payout.
If interested, please send resume to...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Lisa Quinn, 3 Apr 2009 @ 7:15am

Social Media Trends
The trends of social media are constantly changing and reinventing itself. Since the boom of the social network, there has been constant competition regarding networking functions. MySpace was trying to make a claim to fame by capitalizing on the music market, but unfortunately it seems to be a flop due to the Twitter/Facebook real time messaging system.
So, what's next? What is going to keep people online and actively using the sites? I suggest checking out how www.eZanga.com, a search engine that specializes in pay per click advertising, has remodeled social networking with their recently launched site, www.HopOnThis.com. HopOnThis allows its member to win cash and prizes by social activity on the site. Could this be the next best thing to hit the social media circuit?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
PaulT (profile), 3 Apr 2009 @ 8:19am

MySpace has falling popularity and many people are using other services instead. The reasons - annoying users, garish and hideously designed pages, unsustainable peak popularity when there was little competition, etc. - are fairly obvious.

"we didn't really empower the users to do what they wanted to do"

If only the makers of music services actually tried doing that instead of trying to dictate to people how they should use the service, then they should be successful. I wonder how many times this lesson needs to be taught before it's learned.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
musica, 3 Apr 2009 @ 9:51am

myspace is not the best social network
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Easily Amused, 3 Apr 2009 @ 10:02am

Re: Idiots.
lol... that wanted ad can be found already in any number of posting sites, you just have to read between the lines of the ad-speak... seems to be the norm these days.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
wheatus, 3 Apr 2009 @ 4:36pm

Major Label Favors
The real problem IMO is that they allowed player links that sell major label product but not indie...check our myspace for the example: myspace.com/wheatus

We had 2 major label releases...most of the songs on our player are not from those ML releases yet Myspace only allow us a sell link (that we had no part in approving or enabling) for that one song from our 1st ML release. They ignored our e-mails asking if we could set up the same links for our other tracks....Shit, I'd even cut them in!

What could possibly be the reason behind that policy other than favoritism for multinationals? Why don't they want my money?

brendan b brown
wheatus.com
[ link to this | view in thread ]
doug, 15 Mar 2010 @ 11:03am

Myspace
Myspace sucks because of the spam, and bands using bots and software, fans no longer give a damn because they get 500 friend requests per day and they just don't give a crap. Try spamming on Facebook.. you will be gone in an hour. Myspace knows about spam and they don't care, they actually encourage it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]