Could this be a reason why MySpace is for sale and layoffs are expected, they are afraid to make money by selling you music? Maybe it is my marketing education at the hands of Gene Simmons and KISS, but why are people afraid to make money? The MySpace CEO would rather send their traffic away to someone else to make the sale. If you already have the user and they are interested in a band… sell!
Some surprising news from the CEO of a company openly for sale by parent NewsCorp for not producing profits: “My goal is you come to MySpace, you listen to some new bands and connect to those bands,” MySpace CEO Mike Jones told LeWeb conference in Paris this morning. “I don’t wanna be the place that replaces iTunes. I wanna be the place where you learn about music and then take that to wherever your music consumption happens.”
The company is, however, working on improving recommendation to encourage users to dig deeper into the site. “We do need to get better at surfacing the music that interests you,” said Jones. “If we connect you to curators who bring you the best content, your repeat visits go dramatically up.”
via MySpace CEO Is Not Interested In Selling Music – hypebot.
and they wonder why their business model is failing. lol
Unfortunately, MySpace appears to be on the same descent that is faster than a 747 Jumbo jet that has emptied its final drop of tank fuel at 10,000 feet. This is the same daymare that members awoke to with the MP3.com debacle over ten years ago. A great model that either becomes financially greedy, or is so artistically challenged that it, eventually, ruins the enjoyment of its constituents, such as is the latter with MySpace. It’s a sad statement when a MySpace member dreads even accessing the site to sign in for fear that the company has made, yet, another major drastic “improvement” requiring the learning curve of a rocket science program. Perhaps, MySpace administration would be well served to visit (or re-visit) the “KISS” formula of basic business. As a note for the uninformed, “KISS” is the acronym for “Keep It Simple, Stupid!”
I always dread having to visit MySpace… site is so slow, things are always broken and I never know what kind of messed up poor design I am going to find on some band page.
I wonder what you would think of the design I do on the MySpace music pages I’ve worked on…. 🙂 I keep it decorated, but keep it simple (no YouTube embeds although have some widgets)