theReformed

MySpace has matured the social networking portal more than any other provider, but how will they fair in the media market - specifically their venture in MySpace music? They’re going after the hallowed ground of Apple’s iTunes and I suspect that we might not necessarily see a failure (because MySpace’s user-base is so very large it can take the hit), but we can forsee that no notable, sustainable gains will be made - Apple’s loyalists will benefit from it extremely however. Why?

It partly boils down to convenience in the user experience. That is, the ten-foot viewing experience in the living room, the 3-5 foot interactive experience in the office and the in-hand experience that you’ll inevitably want when going for that afternoon jog (I know I do). MySpace, without a device, cannot challenge Apple’s iTunes in their sandbox. This obviously isn’t the only factor, as Microsoft’s Zune has only captured a slight market share against Apple’s iPod series despite the significant roll-out of the media device.

The recent shake-up in the format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs where HD-DVD conceded defeat provides credit to the idea that big money from big backers won’t necessarily buy you big wins. MySpace Music’s big three music companies providing backing are counting on this very same flawed philosophy though in an blatant attempt in increase their profit intake for their portfolios online, something that is currently regulated effectively by Apple and their iTunes software + licensing agreements.

The strategy they take would have to be one of low-cut pricing, however, even Amazon’s model hasn’t taken hold and they’ve posted no profits (not necessarily a surprise with Amazon since it took them several years to get anywhere beyond breaking even). Offering cost-effective or feeless downloads to their user community could see them gain large adoption… but that still leaves them on the social networking cutting room floor. MySpace’s interface IS NOT intuitive enough to deal with their own social networking customers and advertising partners. It is an amalgamation of horrid code and poorly defined front-end design that MUST be reengineered to effectively entice the loyalists of Apple, pampered as they may be.

MySpace is a unique case and possibly a perfect platform for recording industry leaders to force Apple’s hand, something that half a dozen other companies including Sony and Microsoft have not even come close to doing. So MySpace, a strictly speculative software company, a fledgling in any marketplace outside of social networking and who is quickly losing market share to better web applications as a service providers like Facebook, is going to try to duke it out with Apple, a hardware and software applications integration pioneer, on their turf? It just isn’t going to happen.

Speaking of Facebook, I can’t wait until iTunes somehow integrates with it since Apple and Facebook have been in bed for almost a year, maybe more (as can be seen in a recent podcast regarding the iPhone software roadmap and the release of their open SDK). That is strictly speculation on my part, but now both companies have a reason to want MySpace in the gutter and that is a powerful combination to tango with.

As mentioned before, there is one usergroup that will benefit from any challenge to Apple… that is the Apple users, such as myself (yes, after over a decade of lauding the PC I’ve been sincerely sold on Steve Job’s vision and I just don’t care to look back), themselves. Bring it on MySpace, you’re only making my stock go up and my user-experience richer.