Hear it on MySpace

  Not long ago, I told you about Starbucks’ ongoing effort to revolutionize and revitalize the record industry.  Through exclusive retailing opportunities, they are cashing in on record sales while the rest of the industry struggles.

  Yet another frontrunner exists in the race to break new artists.  It is at once as high-tech and grassroots as you can find in this information age.  Of course, I’m talking about MySpace.com. 

  MySpace is the Internet’s fastest-growing social networking site.  It attracts more than 14 million different visitors per month, most of whom are teens and twentysomethings.  Becoming a MySpace member is free, and members can create their own homepages with pictures, message boards, blogs, and streaming audio and video.  They post their interests, and seek out friends from across the globe.  It’s easy to lose hours surfing its millions of members.

  Enter the musician.  With the capability MySpace provides to post music on members’ websites, musicians were among the first to begin taking advantage of the feature.  Artists want exposure, and with 14 million unique visitors per month, MySpace became portal number one.  Now the site hosts pages for over 350,000 bands and artists, including Ludacris, Eminem, Black Eyed Peas, REM, and Billy Corgan (of Smashing Pumpkins fame).  Corgan recently told Business Week Online, “Now that MySpace is here, bands don’t necessarily need a label to be heard.”  And that is certainly true.

  Enter the sometimes-savvy record label.  MySpace has become an incredibly popular tool for record execs trying to stay ahead of the curve.  Not only can they fish the fertile waters it provides for new acts to sign, their existing artists can create MySpace pages for added exposure.  Labels often post unreleased or rare tracks from top acts to preview or download.  And with rock and alternative radio stations flipping formats, MySpace is quickly displacing radio as the rock labels’ primary mode of exposure.

  Now enter the always-opportunistic media mogul, Rupert Murdoch.  Last Monday, July 18, Murdoch’s News Corp. announced that it had purchased Intermix Media, Inc., MySpace’s parent company, for $580 million.  (News Corp. owns 20^th Century Fox, all of the Fox cable networks, DirecTV, the New York Post, HarperCollins publishers, and the National Rugby League, among many other things.)  Naturally, many religious MySpace users bristled at the acquisition.  What this will mean for the site remains to be seen, but initially there is no detectable change.

  MySpace president Tom Anderson posted a bulletin on the site on Friday, saying “Everyone seems scared that MySpace is going to change.  I’m not leaving, and I'm still making the decisions about the site, and I'm not going to let things suck.”  He goes on to dispel the rumors that have arisen about the future of MySpace.  “We are not going to become a pay site. We are not increasing advertising. We are not allowing anyone to monitor the site. We are not deleting any content or censoring people in any new way.  [And] we are not exploiting anyone's data or violating anyone's privacy.”

  Next time you’re online, look for me on MySpace.  I’ll be checking in frequently—unless it starts to suck.

-From Pulse
   July 28, 2005