MySpace has just debuted MySpace Music and the reviews are generally good so far.  But whatever users think of the style and songs of MySpace Music, there's a deeper point here that Jordan McCollum touches on when she writes "they just might have revolutionized music online..."  The fact is, MySpace is trying a new business model - one that is going to make the world better for both consumers and artists.  PaidContent hits the nail on the head.

MySpace Music says it wants to make finding and listening to music as easy and flexible as piracy, which is a pretty good bar to set.

This, as A VC notes, is "progress".

In an interesting post, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington suggests this is the business model that will work...

...MySpace has done something incredible at a big picture level: they've created both a compelling music experience for users as well as a realistic, long term business model for labels and artists in a world where recorded music moves towards free.
[...]
The Future Of Recorded Music Is Free, And MySpace Just Took Another Step In That Direction

Just a year and a half ago it wasn't clear if the music industry would ever give up on DRM. People were calling me crazy for saying that the price of music must inevitably tend towards free because anyone can copy any song for free.

But today the labels have all but given up on DRM, and users can now play virtually any song ever recorded on demand for free. MySpace has created the first ecosystem that has a shot of producing sustainable revenue streams for artists based on advertising, merchandise and concert sales.

If it works, the next step is the fall of per-stream fees and download fees. Instead labels will see music consumption for what it really is - free marketing. Labels will compete to encourage song downloads and streams to move those songs up the charts, attracting premium advertisers, merchandise sales and sold out concerts.

Is Michael Arrington right?  Maybe.  But Arts+Labs wasn't created to pick the winning business model.  That's not our role.  We believe that consumers and artists can be the best judge of that.  Arts+Labs simply wants to ensure that new business models are allowed to flourish, giving consumers a variety of quality, safe content and artists the opportunity to earn fair compensation for their work. 

MySpace Music is a valuable new choice for both consumers and artists, and we applaud that.

Technology and Creative Communities Unite to Form Arts+Labs, A Groundbreaking New Organization

• AT&T, Viacom, NBC Universal, Cisco, Microsoft and the Songwriters Guild of among Founding Members

• New Coalition Launches Initiative to Encourage Development and Dissemination of Legal, Safe and Innovative Content on the Internet

Read more about the announcement of Arts+Labs.

It is our great pleasure to introduce Arts+Labs, a collaboration of creative and technology communities with a common aspiration: a better, safer internet for all of us. 

The internet has become our community, our marketplace, our digital neighborhood.  The internet connects us to our friends, to culture, to entertainment, to ideas, to the entire world.  But the internet doesn't just bring the world to us; it also brings each of us to the world. 

As creators and as consumers, each of us should be free to participate and prosper online.

Arts+Labs believes the internet has transformed the world in which we live and it will continue to do so.  But in order for this great network of networks to flourish, we must allow new business models to proliferate, to prosper or fail within a market that respects the rights of both the creators and the consumers.

Arts+Labs believes, as most consumers do, that creators should be fairly compensated for their work - that their rights should be protected and their creativity rewarded.  Arts+Labs also believes consumers should have fast, reliable access to safe, legal and affordable content.  Finally, Arts+Labs believes both the creators and consumers deserve protection from net pollution - the illegal file trafficking, spam, malware and computer viruses that threaten to congest the networks, harm our computers and slow the internet for all of us.  Accomplishing all of this will take smarter networks, creative networks, free to adapt, to try new business models, to compete and to satisfy you. 

To reach that goal we need to move beyond polemics and sound bites and focus our energy on conversation and competition.  We intend to join that conversation, and as both consumers and creators, we look forward to the competition that will bring us a better internet - an internet that is safe, legal and everywhere.

- Mike McCurry and Mark McKinnon

Learn more about Arts+Labs...

• What is Arts+Labs?

• Who is Arts+Labs?

• What is the Arts+Labs Mission and Principles?

• Our Shared Vision for Consumers, Creators and Innovators

• Five Strategies for a Better Internet

• Creativity Online: Where you can find safe, fast, affordable and free content