MySpace Australian launches – find filter and forward music, a front end on to iTunes and stuff. But given that Apple iTunes already has an affiliate membership program – members benefit from helping to sell music – one wonders why MySpace isn’t offering the a similar deal to MySpacers who help sell music from their MySpace pages… ?

Myspace Music Australia has launched. It socializes the find-filter-forward mechanism a lot better, apparently. Find cool music, filter through it (list friends), and then forward on. Also makes it discoverable.  Like Kevin Rudd’s fine music taste:

Kevin Rudd’s MySpace Music Playlist

Music has a strong nostalgic element. This playlist reflects some of my treasured memories and life experiences. Kevin Rudd

• ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ by Frank Sinatra
• ‘Fire and Rain’ by John Denver
• Handel’s ‘Messiah’
• ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’ by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
• ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’ by Paul Kelly
• ‘The Power and the Passion’ by Midnight Oil
• ‘My Happiness’ by Powderfinger

and, just to keep things even:

Malcolm Turnbull’s MySpace Music Playlist

• ‘Chan Chan’ by Buena Vista Social Club
• ‘Eagle Rock’ by Daddy Cool
• Me and Bobbie McGee by  Janis Joplin
• Heart of Glass by Blondie
• Roxanne – The Police

you can click on the pictures to see them in all their glory (bigger images not nuder politicians).

The chap from EMI was less than impressive:

Mark Poston, Chairman & Senior Vice President of Marketing, EMI Music Australasia

“MySpace is a vital platform for connecting our artists and their fans.  We’re excited about exploring new ways to connect with those fans and we see MySpace Music as a great tool for doing this.  MySpace Music is the next step in the development of an important online music property. The record industry has been evolving over the last decade and MySpace has been an important part of that evolution.”

Well, that quote wasn’t too bad but going on about Lily Allen doing a great job on her MySpace blog and speaking up about piracy, when she’s just been caned online for pirating content from TechDirt with no attribution was a bit much.

After the British Government’s plans to implement a three strikes policy for file sharing copyright infringement, Lily Allen came out in strong support for disconnecting offenders.^[175][176] Creating a blog entitled “It’s Not Alright” against file sharing, it subsequently came to light that she had copied text directly from the Techdirt website of an interview with 50 Cent^[177]. This led to an exchange on the internet, which culminated in accusations being made that Ms. Allen had infringed on other artists’ copyrights by creating mix tapes early in her career, that she then made available via her website.^{[178] (wikipedia)}

And waffling on, something about “people thinking musicians make all this money is not correct, only a small per centage do, and we have to protect them. People shouldn’t blame artists for wanting to make money” was disingenuous. We don’t blame artists as rip off merchants we blame Music/Entertainment companies… like EMI. Most people are smart enough to know exactly who’s pockets are being lined when it comes to album deals:

Australian Idol winner Damien Leith struggled to pay the bills

• Damien Leith sold 300,000 copies of record
• Idol deal meant he didn’t get any royalties

AUSTRALIAN Idol survivor Damien Leith sold more than $5 million worth of records when he won the 2006 crown but had to sell his car to pay the rent.

The popular family man, whose new single To Get To You has returned him to radio playlists for the first time in three years, has revealed he did not receive any of the proceeds from selling more than 300,000 copies of his The Winner’s Journey record.

Leith, who worked as a chemist before being dared to audition for Idol by two mates, said there have been “patches” since his win when he considered going back to his day job.

He and wife Eileen re-mortgaged their home in 2006 so he could chase his dream for the three months he needed to devote to the series.

Once he won, they believed there would be income from the sales of The Winner’s Journey, which was recognised as the Highest Selling Album at the 2007 ARIA Awards.

But when his lawyer gave him the bad news that the contract didn’t grant him any royalties for the compilation, the Leiths were left with no choice but to sell their car to pay their bills. (from News.com.au)

A darker side to the music business indeed.

Back to MySpace – providing a usable, shareable front end onto iTunes is sheer genius. It’s bloody impossible to pass a link to someone, if you find a cool song and want to suggest they purchase it too.  I heard – maybe misheard? – that advertising will cover the commercial costs of downloads. Not sure – ask Mumbles he was chatting with the MySpace advertising dude (I forgot his name).

No not Rebekah… silly.

AFFILIATE PROGRAM

• MySpace Music also offers users in Australia the opportunity to purchase and download single songs and full albums on iTunes

I did ask if they were setting up an affiliates program.  After all, Amazon made $490 million their first quarter from having members find, share, discover, recommend books through social media. Go to a blog, see their recommend books, buy them (through the API widget, direct on the blog) and a clip of the sale goes to the blogger. But nah, MySpace isn’t doing that, it’s a commercial arrangement.

My guess is… iTunes will…. oh wait! they do!

The iTunes Store features thousands of iPhone and iPod touch applications, movies, TV shows, podcasts, audiobooks, and, of course, millions of songs. Share the excitement by joining the iTunes Affiliate Program.^*

Partnership pays.

As an iTunes Affiliate, you can access Apple-designed marketing materials for use in your website, email, and online promotions. Link to music, TV shows, movies, audiobooks — even applications in the App Store — and earn a 5 percent commission on all qualifying revenue. (apple affiliates)

eBay offered customer to customer auctions off the ebay site and increased their sales by 83% the first year. The power of the peer to peer marketplace, where the online community member is the reseller is  not to be ignored, Apple & Amazon & eBay know that.

I was thinking just the other day that I hoped Fox/News wouldn’t do with MySpace what Microsoft did with Hotmail for years. Just leave it along, not update it at all. By the time Microsoft fixed Hotmail and made it Live or whatever it’s called now, it was too late, and Gmail was sweeping the world. Looks like MySpace might be moving ahead, in time, to capture/retain the broadcast (large audience) music market. *finger crossed*