Myspace to Sell MP3s From Unsigned Bands

Rija Ménagé

• 2 min read

to change a bit, I've got a positive thing to say about MySpace.
Few months ago I've been to the 606 club (a well known Jazz club in Chelsea) to listen to a band centered around the lead female singer.
It was a great moment.
The singer was advertising her album, and she gave the audience the url to here website on MySpace. Her name was Juliet Kelly.

Is she one of these "3 millions" ?
(cough, see my previous post for why I'd rather take this number with caution)

I think if her tunes were downloadable, I could be attracted, not because they are MP3 or lacks of DRM, but because they come straight from the artist.
(it's comparable to the Fair Trade for third world food producers)

This will give a kick in all of this stinky music distribution business.
I think the problem is more the Music industry rather than DRMs.

But, I'd be honest and say that right now, buying it on the iTunes Music Store (her songs are also available there ;-) doesn't bother me at all as it is more convenient for me:

  • I use iTunes to play my songs on various computers (which iTunes DRM allows, even in different country!),

  • I'm on the verge of owning an iPod that read itunes DRMed songs natively (I keep saying that for the last 3 months),

  • burning the songs on CD is enough to strip out the DRM layer which I do anyway to backup the song (and the limitation of 10 burnings is not one as changing the playlist reset the counter)

  • For the same bitrate, the AAC format is still better than MP3

Oh and by the way, any artist can submit songs directly to the iTunes Music Store without having to be signed in a label.

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Myspace to Sell MP3s From Unsigned Bands: "soldrinero writes 'Yahoo! news is hosting a story about a new competitor to Apple's iTunes Music Store. Nearly all the other iTunes competitors have been strongly controlled by the music industry, shackled in DRM, and giving little back to artists. The new MySpace music store will feature vanilla MP3 downloads at prices set by the individual bands (3 million of them!), all or nearly all of whom are unsigned musicians with no industry affiliation. Is this the example we have all been waiting for of how the Internet will obviate the business model of the recording industry?'

"

(Via Slashdot.)

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internet, myspace, music, musicindustry, itunes, julietkelly, DRM, mp3, download, legal