Social networking site MySpace may have seen some of its major label music curtailed to 90-second samples, but the company plans to record and distribute its own musical productions, allowing it to skirt the issue of licensing sound recordings from major labels while offering users exclusive performances.
The first artist to be featured on MySpace Transmissions is James Blunt. On the site, fans can listen to 5 songs and watch 6 video interviews recorded exclusively for MySpace, while playing around with some recording console-style sliders that don't appear to do anything. You don't have to sign up for a MySpace profile in order to access the music or videos.
If you like what you hear, you can pay $14 for downloads of all 5 tracks (almost certainly in the MP3 format), plus a physical CD which will arrive by mail. Lala provides the back-end for delivering the music.
It'd be nice if MySpace Transmissions included videos of the songs being performed/recorded and a cheaper digital-only version of the release, but as MySpace adds more bands, MySpace Transmissions could become the new MTV Unplugged.
**
(nytimes; via techcrunch)
