An alternative for MySpace, .music is the next step for musicians

By
Brett
Published: November 13, 2009Posted in: Marketing, Music BusinessTags:
An alternative for MySpace, .music is the next step for musicians

image by Nataly

Because MySpace.com has so many advantages for musicians, only the foolish would not have an account. MySpace may no longer be the superstar of social networking, but for musicians it’s almost perfect.

Almost.

One of the biggest drawbacks to MySpace is the owner. No, I’m not talking about Tom. I’m talking about Rupert Murdoch.

In an interview with Australia’s Sky News Murdoch threatened to remove all websites he controls from Google. In the interview he said that people who find his sites from search engines are of little value to his advertisers. “We’d rather have fewer people coming to our websites, but paying,” Murdoch said.

Does this mean he wants to make MySpace an unsearchable, pay-for-content site?

Unlikely, but as long as Murdoch controls MySpace musicians need options.

One option in the not so distant future will be .music.

Based on Constantine Giorgio Roussos award winning project from his days at USC, .music is the idea of an exclusive Internet extension for all things music related. Tools will exist to for selling music and merchandise, getting recording deals, and even musicians trading services with each other. Roussos is trying to make .music a near replacement for .com in the music world.

Roussos’s business plan was started almost a decade ago, but his first venture, Unsignedperformers.com, was too early. The concept was similar to MySpace today, with personal profiles, but few people were ready to share pictures and personal information.

Yet by 2004 MySpace and Friendster changed the way people used the Internet.

The way Roussos saw things, as much as MySpace helps musicians, it can also be a waste of time.

“MySpace does not increase the money you make for the amount of time you spend working on your site,” Roussos said. “Do you think is it work making $200 a year for the hundreds of hours your band spends each year on MySpace?”

MySpace and .music will differ in majors ways, starting with getting paid for advertising.

While Bands and personal profiles drive all the traffic to MySpace they see none of the profits. Roussos’s plan for .music that bands will get paid for endorsements that are placed on their page.

The creation and control of the site would be similar to MySpace. Roussos company, Music.us, would host the site for a fee and have tools available for bands to create their pages and make money.

Making .music work should be simple. Once live, .music would replace .com at the end of a websites URL. To find a band a person would just type THEBAND’SNAME.music.

The .music extension would even protect bands against squatters trying to buy popular domains and then selling them later at a high price. All the band sites would be required have to have content. Without rights to the music, no one could use a band’s name on .music.

Tools for .music would include ways for bands to sell tickets, merchandise and even trade services with each other. There is also a plan for a virtual T-Shirt store. Bands would submit designs and then shirts would be printed when a customer orders them. The bands would never have to touch the product or have to worry about excess inventory.

According to Roussos, .music will start testing over the next few months, but when the site will be launched is still up in the air. The .music approval for the Internet has not been approved. But, it’s not because Roussos is not trying.

Roussos and his investors have put in years and large sums of money to get .music going. They have a website petition with close to 1 million names asking to add .music to the Internet, and put in an investment of $200,000 to secure .music. There is just one problem. The international committee that permits URL extensions has not allowed a new extension in almost a decade.

ICANN, the committee with the power to add new extensions, said they would be adding new extensions to the Internet in 2009, but over the last few months ICANN is now saying it will likely be sometime in 2010.

“Now it is a waiting game,” Roussos said.

.music may not be available for over a year, because Roussos said he want the site to launch with full force. For those who can’t wait, invitations for testing .music will be sent out to musicians that sign the .music petition. Until then, keep working on your MySpace pages.

About the Author

Brett Lohmeyer is an editor for detone8.com and an online producer for the Globe-Democrat. Brett has worked in different aspects of the media industry for several years including The Montage, The St. Louis Beacon, The Webster-Kirkwood Times and SLPS Channel 20 in St. Louis, Mo.