MySpace.com Becomes Music Publisher
Posted on November 3, 2005
MySpace.com, the social network and blogging hangout for teens and young adults with 35 million members, now has its own record label called MySpace Records. News.com says the MySpace imprint will be part of Universal Music Group's Interscope Records. The first album will be a compilation album called MySpace Records: Volume I.
That initial title will feature a mix of tracks by major-label, independent-label and unsigned acts, including Weezer, the All-American Rejects, Dashboard Confessional, Fall Out Boy, AFI, Against Me, Plain White T's, New Year's Day and Hollywood Undead.The CNET article said MySpace Records will "be based in the Web firm's Santa Monica, Calif., offices. The label will initially employ seven to 10 people." No news on whether MySpace.com might also launch its own gaming or movie studio. Should we be expecting a competing music label from Friendster --Friendster Records?The latter act, a Los Angeles rock/rap act, is MySpace's first signing. The group will issue its own album on the label early in the second quarter of 2006.
MySpace Records should find an immediate audience in users of the Web site that spawned it. MySpace, founded as an online community where members could share their likes and dislikes, has become a heavily trafficked home for musicians and music fans of all stripes.