Labels Team Up with MySpace
By Mark Fleischmann April 10, 2008 — The latest heavy-hitting entry to the music-downloading scene is MySpace Music. It's a joint effort that brings together three of the four of the major record labels with the social networking site owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

The labels include Universal, Sony BMG, and Warner. EMI is reportedly in negotiations and likely to join. What the labels bring to the table, of course, are their huge and historic back catalogues. What MySpace brings is a well-designed site with 110 million users that makes it easy to download or stream music.

You'll be able to listen to free streaming music with ads footing the bill, and that will include sharing customized playlists with friends. You'll also be able to download tracks for use on mobile devices. Still to be finalized is a third option, a monthly subscription plan for unlimited access—and remember, we're talking about the back catalogues most or all of the four majors.

MySpace has become a major guerilla-marketing move for fledgling bands, with more than five million artist profiles, many of which sell downloads and other merchandise.

See press release.