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"If you had bet the under following The New York Post\u2019s rumor that MySpace\u2019s iTunes competitor was launching last week, you would\u2019ve been a loser.  Today, Reuters is giving the gambler in you another chance, reporting that the social network \u201Cwill unveil a music joint venture with at least three major music companies within 5 days.\u201D\nWhat\u2019s new in today\u2019s report is that Universal Music Group has supposedly signed onto the venture, leaving EMI as the only major record label not rumored to be a part of MySpace Music.  The service, which would feature MP3 downloads, concert tickets, ringtones, and artist-related merchandise, could be a huge revenue source for MySpace and parent company News Corp, as the social network's biggest strength continues to be its music section and artist pages.\nIf you are to believe Google \u2013 who blames recent lackluster earnings in part on weakness in advertising on social networks \u2013 it\u2019s also a needed move for MySpace to start realizing the revenue potential of its tens of millions of eyeballs.  As for MySpace\u2019s chief rival \u2013 Facebook - they seem to be content with getting their slice of the digital music pie by linking users to iTunes via artist pages for the time being. \nThis also comes at a time when artists are increasingly launching their own social networks to cut out the middlemen \u2013 a trend reported on in-depth earlier today by Sarah Perez."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/04/02/myspace-music-store-2/>