The Internet's leading online social networking site, MySpace, will this fall begin selling songs from millions of aspiring bands that use the site to promote themselves with special band profiles.
Digital licensing company Snocap, started by Napster founder Shawn Fanning, will handle the online sales efforts for MySpace. All music will be sold in MP3 format--which allows
downloaders to transfer tracks to portable devices, including Apple's iPods, and CD discs. Unlike Apple Computer's iTunes, which sells songs for a flat 99 cents per track, MySpace will allow labels to
set their own prices.
For many small, unsigned bands, the MySpace store could significantly change the balance of power between themselves and the large labels, because the store gives them the
chance to both sell their music and promote themselves on the site without first signing away their rights to a large label. Traditionally, while new musicians stand to benefit from big studios'
powerful PR machines, they have also complained that the terms of deals are unfair. But MySpace, which offers large-scale promotion and distribution at low cost, seems to let independent groups avoid
these pitfalls.
For now, no major labels have agreed to sell tracks on MySpace, but EMI is in talks with the company, according to Monday's New York Times.
The MySpace bid follows
close on the heels of a similar move from the Universal Music Group, which said last week it would offer free downloads from an extensive music catalogue in partnership with a new company called
SpiralFrog. Universal and SpiralFrog said the new service would be monetized through ads instead of download fees, in a bid to regain market share from illegal download networks that are still
popular.
And the Universal-SpiralFrog announcement came as industry insiders await details of an expected deal by Kazaa, a popular music-sharing network, to provide its own ad-supported music
downloading service sometime in the near future. Kazaa recently settled a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by the major music and movie industry players.