My Take on myspace music

myspace music has launched. Reviews of the service are available from hundreds of sources.

I have used the service. I like it. It needs some polish, which it will certainly receive. It will probably become my first source for free streaming music. Still, my pre-launch reservations over its business model remain.

As I listen myspace will incur royalty liabilities that it will have to pay. Theoretically, myspace will sell display advertising in my player and will pay its royalties out of the ad revenue.

Great - but what happens when I press play and then minimize the player so that I am no longer exposed to the advertising? Isn't this what every other user will do? Isn't this mainstream, streaming music listening behavior?

I have read that myspace might triple its CPM for ads on myspace music. Don't you think these advertisers will want some assurance that people will see their ads?

The content/advertising format mismatch that is the foundation of all the advertising supported streaming services makes their business models unsustainable. myspace music is no exception.

Using visual ads to pay for music content is like showing braille ads on television.

Zachary Rodgers at clickZ got it right:

The cool kids say MySpace Music has a good shot. That may be, but at some point it'll have to answer marketers' concerns about the effectiveness of display ads on an audio-based service. The alternative -- radio-style audio ads -- is anathema to digital music listeners but may be inevitable. After all, digital radio executives sing the praises of companion banners on station Web sites, but I've yet to speak to a marketer who puts much stock in them.