Could MySpace develop an MP3 player?

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At the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco on Thursday, MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe said that while there are no immediate plans to do so, it is possible that MySpace could eventually develop an MP3 player to take on Apple's iPod.

In response to a question from the conference host, John Batelle, DeWolfe said "it's possible," but added "Right now, we're just focusing on the service".

MySpace launched "MySpace Music" in September, a joint venture with major music labels such as Sony BMG, Universal and Warner. The service allows people to stream music, download ring tones, watch videos and buy tickets and merchandising. DeWolfe said music was streamed over 1 billion times in the first 5 days and 80 million play lists have been created since it was launched.

So could MySpace develop an MP3 player? According to Reuters, music companies are keen to have a competitor to iTunes, so as to boost digital download sales. However, DeWolfe believes that MySpace Music alone could help iPod sales grow. "If anything, we'll be accretive to iPod sales", said DeWolfe, "unless we develop a device."

MySpace faces ever increasing competition from other social networking sites such as Facebook. With 2009 set to be a tough year due to falling advertising revenue, social networking sites are looking for new ways to make money from the millions of people who use their site each day. Could an MP3 player be the answer MySpace are looking for?

(1 reply) #1 fdiv_bug on 10 Nov 2008 - 12:43

They could, but it would only play My Chemical Romance, cry, and blog about how you don't understand it and how it can't stand living in such a horrible household.

#1.1 FixedBit on 10 Nov 2008 - 13:01

Its sad when something so sad and crude is TRUE.

(3 replies) #2 zoonyx on 10 Nov 2008 - 12:57

Myspace? You guys talking about that thing everyone got bored of last year?

#2.1 theyarecomingforyou on 10 Nov 2008 - 14:42

Indeed. Since Facebook became mainstream very few people I know use MySpace, whereas most people I know use Facebook and use it regularly. It must be disheartening to go from being the number one social networking site to being irrelevant.

#2.2 Code.Red on 10 Nov 2008 - 15:06

It depends who you talk to, really. Some groups of people use Myspace, some use Facebook. There are still an outrageously large number of people using both sites.

#2.3 +xiphi on 10 Nov 2008 - 23:20

I hardly know anyone who DOESN'T use MySpace. I've noticed those that use both sites end up using MySpace more. I have given Facebook a shot a while back, but found the site to be hard to navigate. From what I see, MySpace just keeps getting better with every update they do. Just take a look at Profile 2.0.

#3 RPDL on 10 Nov 2008 - 13:20

MySpace making MP3 players? Thats like Yahoo making a laptop, or Google making processors.

#4 seebaran on 10 Nov 2008 - 15:38

Yey... a clear sign the Myspace era is fading. :-)

#5 Shadrack on 10 Nov 2008 - 17:02

MySpace was a very poor investment for News Corp. I'm surprised how many people who use MySpace don't know that it is owned by News Corp (basically the same company that owns Fox News).

Fox News + Front Page '97 Looking web site = FAIL

Facebook is...well..alright. I use it. There are somethings I like about it, some things I don't like about it. The new design makes the whole "applications" thing less annoying. Ultimately, Facebook has more of what users want with less crap than MySpace.

#6 The Tjalian on 10 Nov 2008 - 23:16

Hold on, considering the majority of music you'd want to listen to MySpace Music is stream only, wouldn't that mean the MP3 player would have to be Wi-Fi capable anyway? Unless the Myspace Player on the PC allows you to download the "stream only" music to the player, but wouldn't that then break the liscencing agreements, seen as this was never agreed on originally?

The MySpace player interface is hardly amazing either. To be perfectly honest, the only thing they could sell properly would be an offline application which can save MySpace playlists onto your PC which can hold all of the songs that are stream only so you still "run" the songs, but they'd still be stream only so it's legally OK from all ends. However, I honestly doubt you'd be able to sell that off, it would have to be ad-based revenue instead, just like it is currently as an online application. You could possibly sell this off using the iPhone App or Google Android Marketplace, however, this still gives a large amount of money to other vendors which is what they do not want to do.

Honestly, I don't see how a MySpace MP3 player (as in, hardware) could be practical or unique in anyway.

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