MySpace to Showcase Music and Sell Performance Videos

By Brian Stelter, New York Times:

MySpace, the social networking site where people create home pages and embellish them as they would a dormitory room, plans today to start positioning itself as a top destination for buying exclusive musical performances.

In a program called Transmissions, MySpace is inviting musicians to choose a studio and select the songs they want to perform. MySpace will show and sell videos of the performance.

It could be perceived as an Internet variation of the popular series “MTV Unplugged,” but with a revenue stream built in. When musicians participate in the MTV series, their work is sometimes released as albums months or years later. On MySpace, the work will be available immediately.

MySpace will let distributors set their own prices.

“We’re enabling artists to choose how they want to distribute their music,” Mr. Brooks said.James Blunt, a singer-songwriter whose signature hit is “You’re Beautiful,” will be the first artist to participate in Transmissions, introducing five songs, including a new single, on the site today. Mr. Blunt said he appreciated the flexibility offered by the Transmissions format.

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MySpace to Move Into Ad-Supported Music

From Brian Morrissey, Adweek:

Next March, fans of punk band Pennywise can go to stores to buy the group's ninth album. Or they can go to the MySpace profile of Textango, a mobile music distributor, and add it as a friend, which will allow them to download the entire album for free.

"This happens in a time when the record industry has such a black eye," said Josh Brooks, vp of marketing at MySpace, owned by News Corp. "It's a nice opportunity and a way to get your music out there."

Pennywise typically sells between 60,000 and 100,000 albums, Brooks said, and MySpace expects at least that many will take up the free offer and add Textango as a friend.

Yet the expected onslaught of friends was not a primary attraction of the partnership, Textango CEO Shawn Dornan said, but rather the opportunity to associate with MySpace and a new kind of music delivery.

The incentive of free music and ads run across MySpace, particularly its music section, will quickly build Textango's friend count from its current 30, Brooks said. But in the end, incentives only start a dialogue, and brands will need to maintain it with their own proposition.

"Once you get to the page and make the commitment to friend, the brand has to be appealing enough to maintain it," he said.

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