With at least six confirmed bidders, Warner Music Group is currently the centre of an acquisitional feeding frenzy. Now make that seven: social games giant Zynga has entered the bidding, with an audacious plan to refocus WMG’s business around social sharing and virtual items. Recent reports valued Zynga at $10 billion, with the company having raised several large rounds of funding in the last year to fuel its growth. Now music could be part of that. Zynga corporate development VP Jess Keeding tells the Wall Street Journal that the company believes FarmVille-style economics could be “paradigm-changing” for WMG’s recorded music business. Consumers might buy an album using Facebook Credits virtual currency, and then stream it within the social network, with an update appearing on their friends’ walls every time they play a track. Keeding also moots the idea of bundles – where social gamers might be offered a free James Blunt album if they buy five tractors in FarmVille – and new games based on specific artists, starting with MuseVille. Source
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