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MySpace to become asubscription service?

Mon 12th Jul, 2010 in International News

According to CNET NEWS MySpace Music is planning to launch a paid subscription service before the end of the year.

News Corp. purchased MySpace for $500 million a mere five years ago only to see the business fall out of favor with the all-important 18- to 35-year-old demographic and be eclipsed by Facebook.

In order to generate some revenue from its dwindling market share, MySpace Music has reportedly been planning to revamp the site as a subscription service.

News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch has long been a vocal supported of charging for his company’s online content, and with Google about to end its advertising contract (conservatively estimated to be worth $300 million) with MySpace this month the social network will need to find a
new source of income.

However the president of MySpace Music, Courtney Holt, has issued a statement denying the story claiming that the company is “always exploring new monetization opportunities, but [has] no plans to change our current service which includes streaming free music.”

MySpace is currently rumoured to be spending $20 million each month on streaming royalties.

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misscrystle

misscrystle said on the 12th Jul, 2010

oooooooooooooooh interesting.

Myspace should spend money to make their sites more user-friendly to customize instead of having to engage third-party crappy layout generator sites for those not able or willing to shell out for a web designer.

I, for one, would sure as hell be enticed to spend more time on the site if profiles were prettier.

samthewoman said on the 12th Jul, 2010

surely this will fail like a mofo. mywhat? myspace is so 2008.

Siamesedreamer

Siamesedreamer said on the 12th Jul, 2010

But when Prince says the internet is outdated he is insane?

Seriously the interent is exhausted as far as being a medium for entertainment goes.

gumbuoy

gumbuoy said on the 12th Jul, 2010

As soon as Facebook builds an in-browser music player, to allow bands to upload tracks and get people to play them in-browser, Myspace is dead in the water.

Stefan Beck

Stefan Beck said on the 12th Jul, 2010

So the plan to revive a dying social media platform is to start charging for it?

Napoleon Solo

Napoleon Solo said on the 12th Jul, 2010

What is the age bracket of Myspace's main demographic? I am guessing 15-18 and a high percentage are not working. I highly doubt they wouldn't mind paying for something they are used to getting for free.

Spicy McHaggis

Spicy McHaggis said on the 12th Jul, 2010

They've got this already I believe?

Shieldsy23

Shieldsy23 said on the 12th Jul, 2010

wait, so not enough people are using myspace, so their going to charge them to use it? what are they smoking?

muzbuz

muzbuz said on the 12th Jul, 2010

It certainly wouldn't fly if their content remained the same. Correct me if I'm wrong but independent artists and their ability to gain exposure through MySpace has attributed to it's ability to stay afloat over the years.

Why would I want to promote my crappy unsigned band on a subscription based website? And why would anyone pay to see this content?

Personally, whenever I enter a site that requires any kind of payment (and as a lover of porn, this happens a lot), I'm turned off (heh). Heaps of people are the same...and it's not Myspace's fault. Pretty much anything that is available on the internet (not physical goods) can be "acquired" for free...which leads your average Joe Websurfer to have an unwarranted sense of entitlement to such content.

As soon as Myspace starts buying exclusive rights to content for this proposed subscription service, I could perhaps see people taking notice. But since their financial woes would be the catalyst for this move in the first place, I couldn't really see this happening either.

But hey, Steve Jobs made it work...