MySpace and Music part II
Thursday, September 7th, 2006Saw this article on the Motley Fool site:
Archive for September 7th, 2006
MySpace and Music…
Thursday, September 7th, 2006I love seeing news that I think will completely change the game. MySpace announced the following:
“The new Snocap-powered feature will enable bands to outfit their MySpace site with an interface through which computer users may browse the bands’ songs and buy them in the copy-protection free MP3 format, MySpace said.”
I was not a believer in the whole “make it cheap enough and people won’t pirate” theory. I think people are prone to be so self interested that no price is low enough - and then Apple changed the game by offering $.99 downloads. Sure, people still do bad things but I do see that CD sales are down and music downloads are more than making up the gap. Heck, I only used the radio but now I own multiple MP3 players and buy music like I never used to.
I think that MySpace is changing the game by enabling bands to set their own prices and opening up to the MP3 format which will let people download and share music with friends that have common interests. It will be interesting to see where this goes. Will people feel compelled to pay for music because they have some level of relationship with their friends? Will there be some type of peer pressure that pushes people to do the right thing? That sense of community can be a pretty powerful force in your small town or in your online circle of friends.