Social networking and music hub, MySpace, entered a joint venture with three major music companies this week to launch MySpace Music, a company to rival online retailers of music like iTunes, Amazon and Emusic.com. Partners in MySpace Music include Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group Corp. EMI, the fourth largest music company in the world, and home to artists like Lily Allen, the Kooks and Gorillaz, was notably absent from the deal. Each of Myspace Music's partner companies, according to a statement from MySpace co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe, will receive an equity stake in the new record label, but financial terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed. Previous MySpace music ventures included the launch of the MySpace Records label in November 2005. MySpace Music, according to a statement from parent company NewsCorp, intends to offer bands new and easy ways to make money off their digital content, including "an e-commerce platform within MySpace," from which they can sell DRM-free digital downloads, stream ad-supported audio and video, and sell mobile content (ringtones, etc.) via a user-friendly MySpace storefront. Thanks to the social network's existing music community, MySpace Music will launch with nearly 30 million unique monthly visitors to its Music "channel" and more than five million participating artists.
