Digital Music Titans Battle for Eardrums and Dollars

In this dawn (midday?) of the computer age, every day the lines between reality and e-reality are consistently becoming more blurred. Where we'd once stop by a record store every day in hopes something new was coming out, we now simply go to a web page and find release dates or click a link to go to an online store without ever leaving our chairs.

Today's digital and musical revolution? A battle of corporate titans. How two top companies, MySpace (owned by News Corp. (NWS)) and iTunes (owned by Apple (AAPL)) are potentially going to be throwing down in the back alley over who gets to be the king of selling music to society over the internet.

While I find it hard to believe anyone hasn't heard of iTunes or MySpace Music, those of you at home should be brought up to speed.

iTunes is one of the main products dispensed by Apple, Inc. It not only works as an mp3 player on your computer, but also is a music mall brought straight into your home that allows you to purchase the albums of your favorite artist with the click of a button.

MySpace Music is an addition to the internet beast MySpace. com that uses their unique internet social network and adds the tool that allows the average user to express their musical talent to anyone willing to stop by the page for thirty seconds to listen.

Here's where the battle begins.

iTunes, sitting in this corner with an easy to use interface, strong following, and integration with the iPod, which is perhaps the most common household item at this point next to your microwave. With the click of a button your favorite track is paid for, downloaded, and already on your iPod ready to go.

On the other side of the fence, MySpace, which is assumed to have over 100 million accounts, making it pretty much impossible to walk down their proverbial halls without tripping and landing in some new rock band's house, and being handed a free backstage pass to check out their new show.

MySpace Music's plan is to begin offering to sell the music being produced by their users, at a price decided by the band. I can see some of the ads already:

"15 dollars to buy the new single 'R U rdy 2 Rawk!?!???!!!' by the high school band, WebCamGrls"

On the serious side, this gives MySpace Music an opportunity to be a huge competitor in the industry. While there will most likely be a flood of people who really aren't cut out to be musicians trying to make a buck and find their 15 seconds of fame, how can you not be attracted to the idea that not only will the world be hearing YOUR music, but you could make it big in the process? For those who enjoy cutting edge sounds and the experimental side of the music world, the limitations will be boundless. Simply put "funky electronic jazz" into the search window and suddenly you have thousands of new and interesting sounds pouring through your computer speakers, from a plethora of new bands.

As an added bonus, the mp3's you pay for and download from MySpace Music aren't restricted by the DRM, meaning that unlike music downloads from Yahoo (YHOO) or Napster (NAPS), these bad boys will play on your iPod.

When you cut to the meat of the subject, it doesn't seem feasible that MySpace's move will actually put much of a dent in Apple's hold on the music industry. Even if you download the mp3's from MySpace Music, and toss them a few coins, you'll most likely be playing it through iTunes, and listening to it on your iPod.

Still, it will be interesting to see how MySpace Music uses their influence on the net to gain favor. From my perspective, it's just one more resource available at my fingertips to gain access to all the various types of music in the world, so it sounds like a good time to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Comments

[sbjforever]

The answer, having extensively used MySpace and iTunes for the last year or so, is the two company's offer a unique blend of music; the largely new and untried mixed with the mature artist attached to record company label. MySpace is wonderful for trolling the up and coming. For example, enter "Jazz" and scroll through thousands of tunes so written and produced, many as good as or better than professional studio. Then correspond with the artist!

Over time there will be a blurring of such offerings - for example iTunes having a MySpace-like section and MySpace growing an iTunes-like one. Key for success: CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT - get it?