Wired News: Music Mis-Match?:
"When Yahoo acquired Musicmatch last September, it was clear the company wanted a larger piece of the digital music market.
But with Wednesday's launch of Yahoo Music Unlimited, the company's digital music subscription service, some wondered where Musicmatch -- which Yahoo acquired for $160 million -- fit into Yahoo's music plans. The two services offer similar ways to find and buy songs.
"I think that Yahoo's overwhelming strategy is about finding and acquiring members of communities and registered users so they won't get Googled again," said Eliot Van Buskirk, technology editor at MP3.com and author of Burning Down the House: Ripping, Recording, Remixing, and More. "By that I mean, people switching suddenly (from Yahoo to Google). Yahoo has an institutional memory of that and they're learning that it's important to keep people attached to your services.
"Finding members of communities and registered users is the new way to own users on the internet," Van Buskirk said. "I think eventually it will fold in the Musicmatch users."
This trend really isn't good..A few years back MP3.com was great, because it allowed unknown artists and garage bands to have a place where their songs could be listened to. They even created CD's of your posted music and made them available to purchase on your bands site. They even did the same with merchandise, and they gave a cut to the artists.
ReplyDeleteThen Vivendi bought them and brought in major bands like the Offspring and Madonna, and then started to say they would only pay out if you sold over "X" amount of CD's each month...They then went and said you had to pay them to get your money..It went to shite, and awful fast.
These big corporations just want $$$ and I can never blame the originators of the site for taking their payday, but the original spirit and concept usually leaves with them.
The saving grace for bands and artists now is myspace.com..Just a matter of time before someone buys them out as well.
Chris
1) There are still free sites that showcase new talent.
ReplyDelete2) Yes, the big corporations want their big $$ and they will generally only provide music that has already proven to be mainstream.
3) Going forward, it is getting more and more practical to start your own site, which means more opportunity to skip around the big guys and go straight to your fans.