MySpace neglects Indie Artists

Three of the four major labels have become partners in MySpace Music, which will extend MySpace's current musical offerings to merchandise, song downloads, concert tickets and more.



A while ago Listening Post expressed concern for aggregators of Indie music, The Orchard in particular, as they are currently being left out from the MySpace Music deal.

Which means: revenues generated from advertising in indie band’s pages will flow in part to major labels pockets.

Yesterday Wired published an interview with MySpace co-founder Chris De Wolfe about the deal. On the topic of dividing shares with digital aggregators, like The Orchard, he declared:

“We're open to extending our equity deals to the right partners, but at a certain point, you can't extend equity to everyone. What we originally set out to do was create a platform where every artist in the world would not only have a free promotional platform like they do right now — we're providing a free service — but also to create additional revenue streams for them”

Which probably means that only bigger aggregator will be considered but is not clear if they will become equity partners or they will be given just a portion of advertising revenues.

Things get even worst for unaffiliated artists and unsigned bands which will be completely left out.

“Wired: Will unsigned bands on MySpace Music have a way to participate in the ad revenue?



DeWolfe: We don't really have the mechanism right now to develop an affiliate program or a payout structure for millions and millions of bands.... We started with the major music companies, and we're talking to the consortiums because the indie bands are really the heart of MySpace — it's how MySpace Music started. We value their contribution, and one of our initial missions was to help artists that didn't get signed by major labels to create a living based on their art.We first did that by creating this free platform where they could get fans from all over the world that they otherwise wouldn't have been able to reach; and provide a platform for those fans to become friends with those independent artists. And when those independent artists go on the road, they can sell out their shows and make money through touring and merchandise and tickets and all of that. We're trying to extend those revenue streams to the independent artists. This is all meant to be a very, very positive movement for them.”

Listening Post suggests to unsigned artists to start look around for aggregators which could possibly become part of the deal but I think indie artists should just use MySpace to divert traffic into their website.