Massive Free Gig Rings in Launch of MySpace Music

Massive Free Gig Rings in the Launch of Myspace Music in NZ

Top Kiwi Artists Release Exclusive MySpace Playlists to Mark the Launch

[Embargo: 21:01 Wednesday 4th November] MySpace today hosted a free gig featuring some of New Zealand’s best homegrown talent in Auckland today to celebrate the local launch of MySpace Music. Featuring Midnight Youth, The Brunettes, The Naked and Famous, The Family Cactus and The EarlyBirds, this epic line-up marked the official launch of MySpace Music which soft launched in New Zealand on October 1st.

A joint venture among MySpace, EMI Music, Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, MySpace Music offers Kiwi’s access to content from the four major music labels, as well as access to The Orchard and IODA catalogues - two of the world’s largest independent digital music aggregators – for free.

With artist playlisting and personal music players a central component of the new MySpace Music experience, high profile Kiwis including Dane Rumble, Midnight Youth, Gin Wigmore and Drew Neemia created themed MySpace Music playlists to mark the launch. To check out their selections go their MySpace profiles or MySpace New Zealand Music homepage www.myspace/music. The mix tape of the 21st century, MySpace Music playlists allow users to be curators of content, creating and sharing playlists with the wealth of content available.

“MySpace Music is about delivering fans access to the music and artists they love and giving artists an unparalleled opportunity to connect and stay in touch with their music fans. What better way to the ring in this great new MySpace Music service than with a huge free party for local MySpace users featuring some of New Zealand’s best talent?” explained Nick Love, Business Development Director, Australasia.

The first territory outside of the United States to launch MySpace Music, New Zealanders can now experience this ever-growing catalogue of fully licensed audio tracks, personal music players, user and artist playlisting, as well as the opportunity to purchase and download single songs and full albums on iTunes. Additional products and functionality include:

MySpace Music Product Overview
• Free and unlimited ad-supported, full-length audio streaming of single songs and albums
• Free and unlimited ability to create and share playlists with easy addition of tracks to playlists via drag-and-drop functionality
• Access to MySpace Music’s vast catalogue of content from EMI Music, Sony Music, Universal Music Group , Warner Music Group, The Orchard and IODA artists and more
• The ability to purchase and download music on iTunes
• The My Music personal music management toolset allows users to create and edit their playlists, discover what their friends, favourite bands and celebrities are listening to, as well as browse and search for songs
• The Artist Activity Feed in the pop-up player provides users with constant updates from their favorite artists, including new songs added to player, blog entries, recent uploaded photos and updates to their playlists
• Ringtones powered by Fox Mobile

MySpace Music hosts more than 5 million major, indie, and unsigned artist profiles, providing a vast artist-powered collection of songs, music videos, tour dates, blogs, and photos. MySpace’s deep, long-standing ties to the music community, has delivered numerous exclusive releases from some of the most popular and respected musicians in the world. The company’s new music product and marketing initiatives will greatly enhance the existing MySpace Music offline concert franchises including Secret Shows.

Artist and Industry Quotes about MySpace Music

Adam Holt, Managing Director, Universal Music New Zealand
“MySpace has always been a great place to find great new music – now it’s got even better. MySpace Music lets music fans listen to whatever they like, whenever they want. They can thrash their favourites, discover new artists and tell the world and their friends what they love. It’s the first music service of its kind in New Zealand and we’re thrilled MySpace Music has arrived.”

Ed St John, President & CEO Warner Music Australasia
“Warner Music is excited to participate in the launch of MySpace Music in New Zealand, which has the potential to provide a dynamic vehicle for unlocking the social value of music. In consultation with the industry, MySpace has created an innovative social music service which offers a high quality and engaging experience. This unique partnership offers a powerful platform for our roster of talent to fully engage a large online community, and gives consumers a great resource for music discovery, preference sharing and convenient transactions.”

Mark Poston, Chairman & Senior Vice President of Marketing, EMI Music Australasia
“MySpace is a vital platform for connecting our artists and their fans. We're excited about exploring new ways to connect with those fans and we see MySpace Music as a great tool for doing this. MySpace Music is the next step in the development of an important online music property. The record industry has been evolving over the last decade and MySpace has been an important part of that evolution.”

Denis Handlin AM, Chairman & CEO, Sony Music Entertainment Australia & New Zealand
“The launch of My Space Music is an exciting initiative that will give consumers great access to a wide range of music. It will also provide labels and artists with a quality distribution channel for their music and represents a significant development in online music services to the music loving public.”

Midnight Youth - www.myspace.com/midnightyouth
“MySpace has been essential for our band to reach fans we may otherwise not have had. It's so easy to upload your music and start letting people from all around the world hear it and tell their friends about it. We now have a fan base across the globe that we can easily keep up to date with our happenings and share our music and videos with and we've found ourselves signing an international record deal as a result of the increased exposure." Jeremy Redmore, Lead singer Midnight Youth.
Midnight Youth have created a playlist to celebrate the launch of MySpace Music in New Zealand. Toview ‘Midnight Youth’s Top Pre-Show Tracks’ go to www.myspace.com/midnightyouth.

ENDS

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