MySpace challenges (?) iTunes with indie music store

Hi, I am an intern for Chris Brogan with Network 2 TV and we were wondering if you had a preferred email address we could have for our database, to let you know of all the news over at Network 2. If you have a preferred contact email, please send it to me at ldpodcast@gmail.com.

Many Thanks,
Whitney Hoffman

No DRM? Yes please. I've never purchased any songs from the itms precisely because of DRM.

Apple wins either way.

iTMS is not the center of gravity - revenue>earnings>share value - for Apple. Do the math and you'll see with tiny margins the music store almost certainly just pays for itself. iPod and the growing ecosystem of related Apple products (including Macbook, and likely forthcoming "smart plasma tvs" - OSX hanging on your wall - are what matters.

I went to Snocap and signed up for the service. Purchased my seventy-nine cent track, hit "download" and down came the MP3. Convenient, simple, in-context purchase for pennies. And of course, up popped iTunes and the track began to play. Dragged it into a playlist, and it will end up on my pod.

This is what matters. All spoils to the winner, same as it ever was. Just because you can get music elsewhere doesn't mean you now have a reason to buy a funky/uncool music brand X music player.

Ron

The best independent music download store is emusic, DRM free downloads, a decent storefront, community features and a mac version of the download manager. Only issue is that you can't pay per indvidual download.

Man so many thoughts are popping up on this. All good points. MAJOR Point brought up include MySpace's shakey nature. The site's down. The site's up. Error sending a message. I gotta message telling me I've ben deleted (this happened once... yikes). I'm back all of a sudden. What?!?
On the other hand, It's a solid idea. Independents are often independent out of a sheer distrust for established labels and "the man". Some music is darn near awesome if not INCREDIBLE, but they have principles they stand for and elect to remain independent and sell their own stuff. This is a great medium for those talents out there with this mindset. Will it topple/compete with iTunes and iPod? Heck no. But it'll compliment it very well for those of us that appreciate the indie mindset and endless pool of musical ecclecticity that comes from it. Much love to MySpace on this (and to the no DRM). And yes, Apple would do well to initiate some indie alternative in their store... but whatever. I'll use both until then. :)

Well, iTunes could support this at any time. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple already has an publishing solution figured out for independents, all they have to do is turn the switch. As an independent artist, you can actually get your stuff on iTunes, you just need to go through an application process (which probably takes a while). https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZLabel.woa/wa/apply

I tend to agree that MySpace would offer 90% crap, but I think it's great thing for new artists. Better chances of getting signed and iTunes as well....

MySpace hardly have shown any design sense have they? Sure, it'll appeal to some people, but signed bands are signed for a reason - they are popular and make money. Its like a company selling rejected products trying to compete with someone selling the same product, sure you might be lucky and get a few good buys, but the majority is going to be a waste of your money.

Bands that are popular with this system might get signed, then they'll not be selling their music on their MySpace page and on iTMS, hence iTMS will in effect be the majority of the market, with MySpace being the 'long tail' of not very popular stuff. Apple could start offering this service whenever they wanted to, and if they did we can be sure it would outstrip any competitors (look what the iTunes podcasting did for podcasts for example).

The Myspace founder is quoted as saying it can become a competitor to iTunes/iPod. But because MySpace music downloads will be DRM-less mp3s - and therefore work just fine on the iPod, I can't see how this challenges the iPod. Surely MySpace is adding value to Apple's music player - which is of course where Apple makes its money anyway.

Im a myspace junkie, and as far as I see it, myspace's servers f**k up way to much to be reliable. (sometimes it down for a day at a time). How can you sell music reliably if you cant even keep up a standard "blog" type of service. And anyways, when I was younger, and started out in music, I was happy to give out my music, so I could build a fan base (and get asked to play out, that's how you get noticed).

No way is MySpace.com going to win this. iTunes is just the simplest and best online music store. Mainly because it is supported by the iPod, the best selling MP3 player in the world.