Lost in the hubbub about DEMO vs TechCrunch50 is another news item that is getting some press today but not nearly enough by my reckoning. Basically the study asserts that web influencers don’t really mean that much in the grand scheme of things. People instead get their recommendations from people they trust, namely their friends. And this makes perfect sense to me. Not to say that getting covered my Mike Arrington has no value for a startup but what is that value exactly? Companies should be very deliberate in their thinking when they try to get fame/fortune from the DEMO/TechCrunch50 crowd because it may not translate into the business value they thought it would. Jeremy has some good tactical advice here but I don’t think he addresses the relevance of these conferences head-on.
MySpace launches music service – ad-supported as well as DRM-free downloads
April 3, 2008 · Leave a Comment
The music space news keeps coming. MySpace is launching a music service with 3 out of the 4 majors on board (EMI curiously sitting this one out). It could obviously have a huge impact and you have to believe that Facebook will do the same thing. It will likely not have that much effect on Apple/iTunes but could have a big impact on others such as Amazon. For right now it is a little hard to discern what will be the major focus of the MySpace music service because the press release seems to indicate that they are offering everything. The unique aspect is the tie-in with MySpace where lots of kids spend lots of time. Still if I have an iPod I will likely only “listen” on MySpace (perhaps via ad-supported model) and continue to “buy” from Apple. Another interesting angle would be if ad-supported model generated enough cash to “subsidize” lower download pricing. That might move some people away from iTunes but it probably would not matter a great deal to Apple anyway as long as the iPods kept flowing. Now if there was all of a sudden a ton of cel phones that supported the MySpace music service that might move the needle. Over-the-air content acquisition would also be cool and a clear differentiator because you take the PC requirement out of the picture.
