MySpace Launching a Social Music Service

For the past year there have been rumblings of a social network music service in the works. Much of the buzz surrounded Facebook and I actually had juicy tidbits from two separate sources that said they were launching a new music service. Since then there has been very little buzz until yesterday when news surfaced that MySpace may be launching the Hulu of music. Right now it’s only buzz since nothing has been signed but there is definitely momentum.

MySpace already provides musicians with the opportunity to stream their music for free. Greg Sandoval suggests that MySpace may simply add a “Buy Now” button. Honestly at this point everything being posted around the blogosphere appears to be hearsay and theories. Given that everyone else seems to be having fun with it, so will we!

We predict that MySpace is going to go head to head with iTunes by generating the first web based mp3 downloading tool that enables all music to be distributed DRM-free and playable on any MP3 player. The new service will attempt to beat Facebook to the punch by launching a full scale music service that itegrates directly into user profiles and enables MySpace users to automatically generate their own musical profile similar to the type produced by Last.fm.

I can hear the music executives shaking in their boots as this means even lower margins for the already struggling music industry. Do you think music will eventually become ad supported or simply included as a tax in our broadband bill as other has suggested?

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.