WebProNews

MySpace Reaches Deal With Another Music Label

The "virtual fifth label" is now friends with MySpace.  Merlin, an organization that represents independent music companies, is supposed to have signed a deal with the social network that should nicely complement MySpace's existing partnerships with EMI, Sony, Universal, and Warner.

MySpace Picks Up Imeem

Imeem, which was able to declare itself "the first and only social networking service to secure licenses from all four major music companies" about two years ago, now appears to be folding.  Reports indicate that MySpace is set to acquire the business for a rather piddling amount. Imeem was once a fairly successful organization.  In addition to sealing the music company deals, it'd earned the backing of Sequoia Capital (which funded Apple, Yahoo, Google, and YouTube over the years), and was attracting around 25 million visitors per month.

MySpace Launches New Music Charts

Today MySpace announced the beta launch of MySpace Music Charts. This is the social networks' attempt at ranking musicians based on popularity.

MySpace's "New Moon" Webcast Brings In 3m Viewers

Leading up to MySpace's live stream of red carpet arrivals at the world premiere of The Twilight Saga: New Moon, we indicated that onlookers should expect a big traffic spike.  Now, the statistics are in, and "ginormous traffic mountain" is more like it. In an email to WebProNews, a MySpace representative stated that the webcast attracted over 2 million uniques and a total of almost 3 million viewers.  Those large numbers are about equal to the populations of Houston and Chicago, respectively.

Facebook Blocks Popular iLike App

Now that iLike owned by rival MySpace, Facebook is restricting some features of the iLike app on it pages. The move is bound to be unpopular with the 12 million users that have made iLike the #1 music app on Facebook. Over the last few days Facebook users who had installed the iLike app received this message:

MySpace Losing $1 Million Per Month On Empty Offices

Don't be shocked if ads for 420,000 square feet of office space start popping up all over MySpace.  It seems that the social networking company no longer intends to use a particular facility, but until it can unload the space, has gotten stuck paying over $1 million per month.

10 Reasons Social Media isn't Replacing Email

Update: VerticalResponse CEO Janine Popick has written a separate piece adding 10 more reasons.

Consumers Are Looking for Offers on Social Networks

Razorfish has released a wealth of interesting data about consumer online behavior, and a good deal has to do with social media and brand interaction. For those struggling to find the right use of social networks for their business, the data is worth paying attention to. The data is based on a survey of 1,000 consumers in the US, about half male and half female. They cover four major age groups and 10 major cities.

MySpace To Host Exclusive Stream Of "New Moon" Red Carpet

Don't be surprised if MySpace experiences a big traffic spike on Monday, November 16th.  The social network intends to host a live stream of red carpet arrivals at the world premiere of The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

Social Networking Donation Cause Leaves MySpace For Facebook

Causes is a social networking donation platform that uses MySpace so that people can raise money for causes or issues that they believe in. Generally these kinds of activities help provide a community around issues like Breast Cancer, or stop smoking, or other issues that are part of our daily life.