July 26th, 2006
Napster founder commerce enables unprotected MP3s on MySpace
One week after Yahoo! started selling unencrypted, unprotected, and personalized (with your name) Jessica Simpson MP3s on its music site (flying in the face of DRM), Napster founder Sean Fanning is at it again, this time with his Snocap service which enables artists to sell similarly unprotected MP3s through sites like MySpace. Reported Reuters of the new service:
Snocap’s Linx service is also designed to let online retailers sell music from the company’s vast registry of songs. It has distribution deals with Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group and Warner Music, along with a number of independent labels….One band, The Format, is already selling music using Linx on its MySpace page.
Actually, it’s the independents that will really benefit from MySpace as a sales channel (while the traditional labels go the iTunes, etc. route). While I don’t believe were at a tipping point yet, the idea of commerce-enabling MySpace for music sales could position indies for an interesting offensive against the entertainment establishment. And, with no DRM, it’s definitely a step in the right direction.
