The ever changing music industry has something new up its sleeve.  All four major labels have backed Myspace Music's new all you can eat, music buffet.  Whole catalogs have been released on bands' profile pages, and users are now able to compile larger playlists instead of adding one song to their page.  Music is streamed for free, tracks can be bought from Amazon, and labels share in the Ad revenue driven from the new joint venture.  Here is a blurb from Tech Cruch

"Labels make more money every time a song is streamed. 20 billion or so song streams are initiated per month on MySpace today (many of them from auto-plays when profiles are loaded). That number is going to go way, way up. Streams are calculated based on complicated contracts that look at full plays and partial plays, so it’s nearly impossible to determine fees that will be paid to labels. But it’s certainly likely to be in the tens of millions of dollars annually, and possibly a lot more. Labels also get a cut of ad revenue brought in to the joint venture, and when ringtones and downloads are sold they get a piece of that, too. Some of this money may even make its way to the artists."

Let me repeat that last line, some of this money MAY even make its way to the artist...!  This is such a crock, and is not the long term solution the music industry needs.  More and more bands are producing their own albums, booking their own tours, and thinking of innovative ways to get their music out there.  Support real Musicians, buy their albums at shows, take out the middle man.

read the whole article here...