The social network giant MySpace
is introducing a way for the three million bands hosted on the network
to sell downloads of their music, through a partnership with
Napster-founder Shawn Fanning's venture Snocap. This actually was announced on Tuesday but I've been moving house.
"The goal is to be one of the biggest digital music stores out there,"
MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe told Reuters.
"Everyone we've spoken to definitely wants an alternative to iTunes and the iPod. MySpace could be that alternative."
What's key about this is it allows unsigned bands and musicians to
bypass the record industry altogether and sell directly to fans. Given
the number of acts which have used MySpace to get a record deal in the
first place, this could see the next generation of acts and artists not
signing with a media major at all. Other, of course, than with Rupert
Murdoch;s NewsCorp which owns MySpace, and to whom all new registrants
must assign copyright for any work they upload to the site, for the
period that their work is hosted there.
Expect film, TV and docs to soon follow.
more info on BBC news.