In another move leveraging its strong ties to music fans, MySpace is joining forces with Viacom's MTV for a new TV program that will air in the U.K.
For the show, MySpace Chart, MySpace and
MTV2 will ask people to vote on around 40 videos; the winners will be shown on TV.
For MySpace, the move marks a long line of initiatives drawing on the site's roots in the indie music
community. Two years ago, the site launched a live music program that involved sponsoring
"secret" concerts of groups like Franz Ferdinand.
Currently, the site is rumored to be talking with with the four major record labels about a new Web radio project.
But these days, MySpace competes with a host of other sites, including social networking rival Facebook, for online music fans. Last week, Facebook unveiled its own music section, which lets bands
create profiles, distribute tracks and music videos, and sell tickets.
So far, around 100 musicians have signed up with the Facebook music, including Coldplay, Justin Timberlake and the
Foo Fighters.
Even before Facebook launched this project, the site was making inroads in the music space. In November, U2 used the site to promote a reissue of the 1987 album "The Joshua
Tree" by releasing a version of "Wave of Sorrow" -- a track that didn't make the original cut -- on Facebook via the iLike widget.