Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), News Corp’B’ (NWS)
Bloomberg reported Thursday that News Corp.’s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace asset wants to leverage its mindshare to sell music. Not a huge leap of logic there — MySpace is a touchstone for the online-savvy youth, a group that enjoys consuming songs and going to shows. Only problem is, the MySpace generation also intersects with another club — the iPod generation — and going against Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) won’t be a simple task for Rupert Murdoch and his social-networking empire.
Bloomberg points out an another interesting issue for MySpace — its buzz appears to be weakening somewhat. I found it very interesting that Facebook is challenging MySpace’s dominance in terms of user growth, and that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) may not be doing as well with its MySpace deal as perhaps it theoretically should be.
This music initiative, called MySpace Music, is intended to aid top-line sales expansion. Remember the days when MySpace was the undisputed god of the web? Hey, it’s still a major online brand, no question, but I find it funny how, in certain respects, MySpace just isn’t the untouchable social network that it once was. It definitely calls to mind the axiom dictating that the hot domain one year might not be quite the zeitgeist the next; I’ve certainly been hearing more and more about Facebook than I have about MySpace these days.
MySpace is nowhere close to death, though, and MySpace Music will come to market with some heavy business partners: Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG). But will it be enough?
Not to sound like Donny Deutsch, but I have to go back to the branding here. Apple and its iTunes franchise is way too powerful at this point to challenge. Does this mean News Corp. shouldn’t try to be a music merchandiser? No, it’s a worthwhile experiment. Taking the crown from Apple isn’t feasible, but I’ll assume News Corp. isn’t really gunning for Apple so much as it is attempting to ensure that MySpace remains a major player in social networking.
That’s the big challenge. The most influential constant in the formula for success on the web is change, since change is an easy thing in the electronic economy. MySpace has to do all it can to remain cool and attractive to the hipster surfers, and selling them music should help.
Disclosure: I don’t own shares in any of the companies mentioned here; positions can change at any time.
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