News Corp paid $580 million for MySpace back in 2005. While the purchase appeared to be a solid investment at the time, Facebook grew to become the chosen social networking destination. MySpace users left and joined Facebook.
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After going several months without a captain, MySpace has confirmed that Courtney Holt will be the new head of MySpace Music, according to CNET News.
“Courtney understands how to successfully blend technology with music and the resulting new business opportunities born from such a combination,” said Chris DeWolfe, MySpace CEO, in the article. Previously, Holt was executive vice president of Digital Music for the MTV Networks.
Holt has a big job—convince people to turn away from iTunes, Verizon V CAST Music, Rhapsody, and countless other services and come check out his site instead. Or rather, come back, as MySpace originally began as a social networking site for independent musicians before turning into a catch-all portal for everyone.
Reuters is reporting that MySpace, the social networking company owned by Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp, may soon design and sell a digital music player in direct competition with Apple’s iPod.
MySpace co-founder and Chief Executive Chris DeWolfe said at a conference in San Francisco on Thursday said that there are no immediate plans to manufacture such a device.
“It’s possible” that MySpace, which recently launched a music joint venture with major music labels, could eventually build a device for listening to music, DeWolfe said in response to a question from conference host John Battelle, according to the report. “Right now, we’re just focusing on the service.”
MySpace announced Thursday it had licensed over one million tracks from IODA, a San Francisco-based digital distributor of independent music, in a bid to quiet a controversy over the new MySpace Music‘s lack of support for indie labels, according to Fortune.
“The independent music community has been a cornerstone of MySpace Music,” said Chris DeWolfe, co-founder and CEO of MySpace in a statement.
Last month, MySpace made the four major record labels its joint venture partners and gave them equity stakes in the new service, the report said—but it wouldn’t do the same for independent labels. That was seen as a stab in the back to the same companies that helped make MySpace popular in the first place.
MySpace employees are busy putting the finishing touches on the social network’s upcoming music service, but there’s still no CEO in place, according to CNET News.
“A six-month search for a CEO has been unsuccessful and now, the service is expected to debut without a chief in place, say three music industry sources. MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe is in charge on an interim basis.”
The report said that users likely won’t care if the service is good and offers plenty of free, DRM-less MP3 files as originally announced back in February. But if it doesn’t get any traction, critics will be quick to point at the service’s lack of leadership. “MySpace has to get this music service right,” the article said. “While Facebook has already elbowed past it as the world’s largest social-networking site, one area where MySpace continues to dominate is music. The site has become the online equivalent of Soul Train or American Bandstand, a digital stage where musicians flock to showcase their talents.”
