MySpace Still Cleaning up in the U.S.
Posted by Petrice Gaskin at Aug. 22, 2008
Although Facebook is the world leader in social networks, MySpace still has more American users. Michael Arrington, over at TechCrunch speculates that MySpace dominates the U.S. market because of how it caters to musicians. I think he's absolutely right.
Every band has a customized MySpace page with streaming music and a concert calendar. Whenever I discover or want to investigate a band in order to decide whether or not I should by tickets for a concert, I inevitably seek out their MySpace page to check out their sound. Facebook is trying to address MySpace's musical supremacy through iLike.
Facebook doesn’t appear to be engaging in any direct music strategy at all. Instead, they’ve placed their bet on iLike, a third party application that has no streaming deal (they piggyback on Rhapsody). Last month Facebook announced that they’ll give iLike special access to Facebook through their new Great Apps program. All official and most off record messaging we’re hearing is that iLike is Facebook’s music partner for the long run.
From the sounds of it, iLike appears to be a bit convoluted. Arrington's description makes me imagine that accessing music on Facebook will require a lot of clicking, or more clicking than I'll feel enthusiastic about.