Another music label will extend its muscle online as Vivendi Universal’s Interscope plans to deliver a compilation of music available from established and new acts featured on News Corp’s MySpace.
Social networking on MySpace has seen music take a big role in the service. The Wall Street Journal noted today how the relationship Interscope has with MySpace will expand to create a music label called MySpace Records.
Interscope has launched albums by Nine Inch Nails and the Black Eyed Peas on MySpace. Response from the younger, networked MySpace community has made those launches very successful.
MySpace Records plans to make the first release available on November 15th. A compilation called “MySpace Record Volume 1” will contain songs from established and unsigned acts, and the label has arranged to get it into retail outlets.
Acts like Dashboard Confessional and Weezer have tracks on the compilation. Rolling Stone magazine listed ways other acts have used MySpace; Foo Fighters did a podcast about making the album In Your Honor while Coldplay posted video from their Japanese tour.
MySpace has had a definite impact on facets of the music industry, as Rolling Stone reported:
“Any way you do business in music has been affected by MySpace,” says [MySpace Records] president, Tom Anderson. “We hear from bands that have places to stay on tour because they meet people online. They’re able to book venues, they’re able to fill them. A&R are using it to find bands, MTV is using it to find people for reality shows, and the movie industry is using it to find bands for soundtracks.”
Artists have been using MySpace to accomplish what they used to do with a press kit and a CD. Instead of mailing those materials to a label, where more likely than not some intern would toss them into a massive pile and promptly forget them, artists invite A&R people like Interscope’s Luke Wood to visit their pages on MySpace.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
