Music Ally

What do the Pope and Katie Price have in common? Well, they’ve both got their knockers. But they’ve also both contributed playlists for the launch of MySpace Music in the UK. It goes live today (Thursday 3rd December), with streaming music from major and indie labels, a deal with PRS for Music, and links to buy songs from iTunes.

Like the US version, the site will be free to users, offering unlimited streams and playlists on the site itself, or on a “personal online music player” while surfing other sites. The likes of 50 Cent, Florence & The Machine, Alicia Keys, Chipmunk, Lostprophets and Nelly Furtado are being featured in a series of interactive films to promote the launch – and don’t worry, MySpace Music has also conformed to the iron rule of current UK music-related branding that Pixie Lott has to be involved.

As in the US, MySpace Music UK will include the MySpace Artist Dashboard, providing analytics for artists and labels on exactly who is listening to their music on the service. It’s all ad-supported, although the announcement doesn’t mention specific advertisers that are on board for the launch. Meanwhile, MySpace has sidestepped the row that accompanied its US debut by ensuring that tracks from Merlin, The Orchard, IODA, Nettwerk Music Group, INgrooves and other indie labels and distributors are included from launch.

What MySpace Music UK doesn’t have is a mobile element, for now. That could be seen as a hindrance in its battle against Spotify, although it’s worth pointing out that users of Spotify’s ad-supported free version – the direct competitor to MySpace Music UK – can’t use the spin-off iPhone, Android and Symbian apps.

It certainly makes for an intriguing competitive marketplace though: Spotify, MySpace Music and we7 may have different consumer offerings, but they’re scrapping for the same advertising budgets – although Spotify might argue its audio ads are after different budgets than the display ads used by MySpace Music and we7.

The big question about MySpace Music UK, though, will be whether the advertising market here will support the likely popularity of the service. In the US, there has been regular speculation about the imbalance between the advertising revenues being pulled in by MySpace Music, and its licensing costs for the music it’s streaming. There have also been claims that some labels are unhappy with the money they’re making from the service.

We’ll have hands-on thoughts later today once we’ve had a proper play with the new site. And in case you’re wondering, the official Vatican playlist includes Muse, Mozart, Dame Shirley Bassey and Tupac. Really.

Tags: myspace music

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 1:01 am and is filed under Digital Music News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.