DeWolf: MySpace Actively Talking to Independents

A ramped-up MySpace Music will include participation from the independent label sector, according to information offered by MySpace chief executive and cofounder Chris DeWolf on Thursday. "They will definitely be involved in it," DeWolf told Digital Music News. "We are actively reaching out to different groups that are representing independent labels," the executive continued, though specific companies were not disclosed. "Independent artists are what helped us get started," DeWolf indicated. (Digital Music News)

MySpace Settles With Universal Music

News Corp.'s MySpace has settled a long-running copyright lawsuit with Universal Music Group, a deal that gives the social network the go-ahead to launch its own music joint venture. Universal gets a "huge" cash payment in return for settling the 2006 lawsuit, perhaps in the $100 million range. WMG and Sony-BMG will also get cash from the deal, but much smaller payments. (Silicon Alley Insider)

MySpace and Record Companies Create Music Site

As part of the deal, MySpace will spin out its popular MySpace Music service as an independent joint venture in partnership with Universal Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group. EMI, the fourth major label, is not a part of the deal at this time, but people involved in the negotiations said it would probably join soon. The music companies will own minority stakes in the venture and will make their entire music catalogs available. (NY Times, LA Times, Financial Times, Business Week, Billboard, AP, PaidContent, PR)

MySpace to stream NME US awards

NME is pushing further into the US through a deal with social networking website MySpace, which will stream the IPC magazine's first US music awards live from Los Angeles' El Rey Theatre next month. MySpace will be the exclusive host for the web coverage of the event on April 23, ahead of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, with live performances from breakthrough bands. The UK title is hoping that the association with MySpace, the biggest social networking site in the US and in the world, will help it grow its audience among new music fans. (The Guardian)

Sony BMG, Warner Near Deal With MySpace

MySpace's plan to launch a digital-music joint venture with the major record companies is picking up steam, as the social networking giant nears deals with Sony BMG and Warner Music Group, multiple sources familiar with the situation told The Post. The agreements could be signed as soon as this week. The service is expected to launch later this year. (NY Post)

MTV and MySpace band together

Music channel MTV has struck a deal with social networking site MySpace to create a weekly chart show. The show, called The MySpace Chart, will be shown on the MTV2 channel. It will feature the best music videos as voted for by viewers watching the channel and MySpace users of the forthcoming mtv.co.uk/myspacechart website. (The guardian)

Facebook suffers from social networking slowdown

Facebook has suffered its first monthly drop in UK users for 17 months, falling by five per cent to 8.4 million unique users between December 2007 and January 2008. Despite this, the social networking phenomenon has grown by 712 per cent in the UK over the past 12 months according to the latest stats from web intelligence group Nielsen Online. In contrast MySpace has seen a nine per cent fall in the number of unique visitors year on year with around five million users. (Silicon.com)

MySpace in talks on music downloads

MySpace, the world’s largest social networking site, is gearing up to partner with the major record companies to create an advertising-supported service that would allow consumers to listen to music for free on their computers. Unlike iTunes, the MySpace service would be built around online advertising. Consumers would be permitted to stream songs for free, according to people familiar with the matter, while MySpace would then sell ads based on the traffic. (Financial Times, News.com)

News Corp. Working On Music ‘Hulu’ For MySpace

PaidContent has learned that News Corp. is pursuing a music joint venture for MySpace—similar to Hulu, its video joint venture with NBC Universal. MySpace would be the operator with the major music labels as content providers and equity partners. Music would be DRM-free and ad supported. No label has signed yet but a source familiar with the situation said that could change in a matter of weeks. (PaidContent)

BBC finds a new friend in MySpace

MySpace and the BBC’s commercial arm will on Thursday announce an agreement that will see clips from popular programmes distributed on the social networking site owned by News Corp. The BBC has a distribution deal with YouTube, the Google-owned video-sharing site, but said that its content would be used differently on MySpace. The two companies will share advertising revenue, but declined to discuss the financial terms agreed. (Financial Times)

Young prefer MySpace to TV

A group of 18- to 24-year-olds drawn from 1,000 people surveyed by Future Laboratory said it would rather spend 15 minutes visiting social networking sites than watching television, reading, playing video games or talking on mobile phones. The MySpace-commissioned survey also found that women typically spent more time on social networking sites than men. (Financial Times)

Justice Moving The Crowd On MySpace Tour

After launching its inaugural music tour last fall with headliners Say Anything and Hellogoodbye, MySpace has snagged French electronic duo Justice to anchor its second branded trek, set to begin March 3 at Stubbs in Austin, Texas. (Billboard)