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If you had bet the under following The New York Post’s rumor that MySpace’s iTunes competitor was launching last week, you would’ve been a loser. Today, Reuters is giving the gambler in you another chance, reporting that the social network “will unveil a music joint venture with at least three major music companies within 5 days.”
[img src="" caption="" credit="" alt=""]What’s new in today’s 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.
If you are to believe Google – who blames recent lackluster earnings in part on weakness in advertising on social networks – it’s also a needed move for MySpace to start realizing the revenue potential of its tens of millions of eyeballs. As for MySpace’s chief rival – 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.