In 2004, when MySpace was still getting going, recording label executive Courtney Holt noticed that musicians were using the Web site to connect more intimately with their fans through detailed blogs and behind-the-scenes photos. So Holt arranged to meet MySpace’s founders.
“I remember going into his office when we were very small,” said MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, “when most other companies wouldn’t pay attention to us.”
Holt, then a marketing vice president with Interscope Geffen A&M, urged bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Weezer and The Black Eyed Peas to nurture MySpace profile pages too. The bands streamed new songs for free on their MySpace profiles and some had the best album launches of their careers.
“The artists loved it and it created a Pied Piper effect for the fans,” Holt said.
When it came to music promotion, Holt realized, MySpace was like a “fire hose.” Now, Holt is being asked to turn MySpace’s attention to a music industry in flames — and in the process, to improve the mediocre finances of MySpace as it tries to fend off rival Facebook.
Three months ago, Holt, 40, took charge of the recently revamped MySpace Music, a joint venture with the major recording labels. The service now lets MySpace users queue up multiple songs to play for free on their profile pages, rather than one song as in the past.
Users can also create playlists that let them swap songs with their friends. MySpace Music overhauled its dedicated home page, which promotes album releases and tours and corrals 5 million blinking artist profiles into genres. And the songs now carry links that let people buy downloads of the tracks from Amazon.com Inc.
The setup gives MySpace and the music industry a share of song-download sales from Amazon and it could bring new revenue from ads.
Next, Holt plans to make MySpace into a seller of concert tickets and band merchandise, while better targeting songs, ring tones, artists and ads at the people who will probably be interested in them. Through these efforts, MySpace’s vaunted music-promoting power could help patch the leaks that have sprung up in the recording business. Even with sales of song downloads on the rise, the music industry is not recouping the revenue lost from falling sales of compact discs.
MySpace’s objective will be to find “half a dozen new revenue streams” that will help recording labels move away from just selling song downloads and CDs, said Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of Universal Music Group’s digital strategy unit.
“We’d rather have 10 healthy revenue streams than one big revenue stream prone to disruption,” he said.
Holt has to do damage control.
The new music player was clunky and slow when it launched. Fans complained that too few songs were available and that playlists they created couldn’t handle enough songs.
Holt directed the creation of a sleeker, faster-to-load version that debuted last month, and he removed the cap on the number of playlists that could be created.
Eventually, Holt wants to build up discussions of artists’ discographies on MySpace and foster “social DJs” — playlist creators who are as influential as radio disc jockeys once were.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Wednesday said that a new chip manufacturing technology called “A16” is to enter production in the second half of 2026, setting up a showdown with longtime rival Intel over who can make the fastest chips. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of advanced computing chips and a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, announced the news at a conference in Santa Clara, California, where TSMC executives said that makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chips will likely be the first adopters of the technology rather than a smartphone maker. Analysts said that the technologies announced on
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
CALL FOR DIALOGUE: The president-elect urged Beijing to engage with Taiwan’s ‘democratically elected and legitimate government’ to promote peace President-elect William Lai (賴清德) yesterday named the new heads of security and cross-strait affairs to take office after his inauguration on May 20, including National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to be the new defense minister and former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) as minister of foreign affairs. While Koo is to head the Ministry of National Defense and presidential aide Lin is to take over as minister of foreign affairs, Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) would be retained as the nation’s intelligence chief, continuing to serve as director-general of the National Security Bureau, Lai told a news conference in Taipei. Koo,
MANAGING DIFFERENCES: In a meeting days after the US president signed a massive foreign aid bill, Antony Blinken raised concerns with the Chinese president about Taiwan US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of “responsibly managing” the differences between the US and China as the two sides butt heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues, including Taiwan and the South China Sea. Talks between the two sides have increased over the past few months, even as differences have grown. Blinken said he raised concerns with Xi about Taiwan and the South China Sea, along with China’s support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as other issues