I’ve been evangelizing a free streamed all you can eat music service
supported by advertising for as long as this blog has been around. And
last night MySpace launched just that in partnership with the four
major music labels and the large indie distributor Orchard. It’s called
MySpace Music.
As I am writing this, I am listening to music of my choice on
streamed to me via MySpace. That’s progress. I agree with Mike
Arrington who wrote last night:
MySpace Music goes a long way towards music’s inevitable future where all recorded music will be free. They, along with services like iMeem
, are now giving on demand streaming music at a zero price point to users, which was inconceivable even a couple of years ago.
But
there’s a lot that they need to do to get me to listen to music on
MySpace instead of dozens of other locations on the web where I can get
a similar experience.
The first thing about MySpace Music that turns me off is the start
page. It’s not really about music, it’s like an entertainment website
or something.
Compare that to my favorite free streaming music website, the Hype Machine:
The music is front and center at the Hype Machine. At MySpace Music,
you have to search or click or browse to get to the music, unless you
want to listen to the Jonas Brother’s playlist, which I do not want to
do. It would be so much better to land me on the “my music” page once I
have one.
Creating a playlist is more difficult than it needs to be. They
should take a look at some of the other playlist services out there to
see how it’s generally done on the web. To add a song to a playlist at
MySpace Music, you need to search, then browse, then select, then click
add, then pick a playlist, then save. They could cut three or four
steps out of that process with a better user interface (copied from the
competition no less).
The player is ok. I don’t mind the advertising on the page. The
player pops out and you can minimize and listen, which is what most
players let you do. Here’s a screen shot of the player with my Arthur
Russell playlist in it.
If they had more data on Arthur Russell (it’s remarkable they have
anything on him actually), the artist update window would include all
new activity on that artist’s myspace page.
I wish MySpace Music were more social and this service comes from a
social net. There’s not a single social interaction on the music player
that I could find. I should be able to share, add to my profile, send
to a friend, etc, etc. I am sure that’s coming but it’s shocking that
it’s not there day one.
And for the life of me I could not figure out how to link to my
Arthur Russell/Jens Lekman and Kings Of Leon playlists. Although they
are public for anyone to listen to, I have no idea how anyone would
ever find them. I could not even figure out how to add them to my
MySpace profile. I spent about ten minutes this morning creating them
and I’d like to share them with all of you. I guess not.
The bottom line for me is having all the music someone would want to
listen to on demand is important, and MySpace Music has that. But the
user interface and the social interactions are equally important,
possibly more important. And in that regard they have a long way to go.
I’m headed back to the Hype Machine, Last.fm, Tumblr and the other
places on the web that allow me to listen to streamed music the way I
want to. But I’ll be back from time to time to see how MySpace Music
improves as I am sure it will.
Read more by Fred Wilson by visiting his blog.
