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So lets see…a site of enormous popularity with a credible brand, offering music for sale a la carte in unprotected MP3 format, catering largely to indy/unsigned artists and setting news sites ablaze as smoke rises from the metaphorical ears of the major labels? Ripping Rights Management Batman! It sounds just like MP3.com circa 1999!
The sheer size and scope of MySpace makes this news significant, but what it means over the long haul and to major labels specifically is unclear. While the scent of change is in the air at the majors in a way that has never been this palpable, we’re still in mode of taking baby steps instead of giant leaps.
If major labels and hardware manufacturers took a more forward thinking stance, establishing DRM as true RIGHTS MANAGEMENT with the appropriate usage charges appropriately levied to consumers, ISPs, Cable Companies and others involved in the digital music food chain…if publishers would establish a reasonable and auditable licensing structure…if the model shifted from Winner Take All economics to billions of microtransactions that properly compensated creators/rights holders and didn’t restrict consumer usage, we’d be onto something. And the sheer size of MySpace may indeed create viable $$$ for some of the participating artists. If that proves to be the case, watch the next generation of word-of-mouth marketing tools, plug-ins and taste sharing software explode as everyone tries to break through the clutter.
Digital music consumers were largely centralized back in Napster’s heyday. If the majors had made strategic moves to acquire the model, improve the technology and establish sustainable fees we’d likely be in a very different place (not necessarily better…but certainly different). Perhaps this MySpace announcement is variation on that opportunity, with the z-axis of ad revenue upon which to structure the financial arrangement. Or, perhaps it really is the second coming of MP3.com, where millions of consumers tried desperately to find the diamonds in a seemingly infinite rough, only to turn off their computers in frustration and drive to the local Best Buy to get their fix.