.Music is expected to be one of the most sort after new gTLD’s with mulitple applicants already having come forward.
So now that Justin Timberlake is part of the group that bought MySpace.com for $35 Million dollars and the new owners seem to be gearing the site towards all things music, what effect will today’s purchase on the new gTLD .Music?
The Sydney Morning Herald writes today:
“”When we met with Justin and we discussed what our strategy was, we hit a chord with him,” Vanderhook told The Associated Press. “One of his passions is he really enjoys helping other artists and creating a community for people to really express themselves. I think we were blown away that we were able to get someone like Justin to be so excited about what we were doing.”
With Timberlake’s help, the buyers hope to revitalise MySpace and transform it into a destination for original shows, as well as bolster its already available video content and music. Vanderhook said the revamp will include additional investment in technology and maintain the right to stream music through the joint venture it has with major recording companies, MySpace Music.
“There’s a need for a place where fans can go to interact with their favorite entertainers, listen to music, watch videos, share and discover cool stuff and just connect,” Timberlake, an Emmy and Grammy winning artist, said in a statement. “MySpace has the potential to be that place.”
“”Timberlake will have an office at MySpace’s Beverly Hills headquarters and a staff of about a half dozen people working for him “around the clock” developing his ideas for the site, said Specific Media CEO Tim Vanderhook.””
Which brings us back to .Music an gTLD whose business model is quite similar.
.Music already has an applicant who has for years been outfront in his desire to operate the .Music extension
Constantinos Roussos has been pushing the dotMusic intiative for many year, has filed for a US Trademark on the term, and has has a site up on Music.Us for quite a while
Mr. Roussos also recently purchased Music.co for $30,000
Here is some information from Music.Us:
“”MUSIC (dotMusic) is the exclusive, global community-based Top-Level Domain (TLD) name that gives music entities a unique identity online and a verified industry standard for official music websites. The specialized .MUSIC web address enhances a brand’s visibility online. It ensures that .MUSIC websites are associated with a memorable, self-explanatory and trusted badge restricted to the music community: www.YourName.music”
“”The .MUSIC domain paves the way for the next-generation of the Internet and the future of music, by building a home to everything related to music. Since 2005, under the slogan “We Are Music,” .MUSIC has embarked upon a global communication outreach campaign to launch the .MUSIC Top-Level Domain name and its Initiative. The .MUSIC Initiative’s mission is focused on:
- Music education and the study of music in school curriculum;
- Fighting piracy and protecting trademarks & music intellectual capital;
- Musicians’ welfare, rights & fair compensation;
- Enriching society with artistic and cultural diversity; and
- Innovation in both the music and Internet space
“.MUSIC will contribute proceeds from its domain name registrations to select trusted not-for-profit organizations that support its music community mission, core values and 5 initiatives.”
“The .MUSIC movement has also gathered a significant following online. Join our Myspace .MUSIC page, which is now the most popular Myspace profile with 4,300,000 friends. Spread the word and connect with us by joining our social media profiles: .MUSIC Twitter, .MUSIC Facebook and .MUSIC LinkedIn”
However a second applicant has come forward a company operating under the site FarFurther.com
So what does Justin Timberlake part ownership of MySpace mean for the .Music gTLD or will MySpace.com simply jump in to the mix and become another bidder for the rights to run the .Music registry?
After all they just shelled out $35 Million for Myspace.com, what another $5M+ to possibly control a whole TLD space for .Music
That’s not just “my space” that’s some real space.
as said, I guess, that, the new owners will buy the MyMusic.com and (someday) the My.Music domains 🙂
the .Music TLD could be great for artists since they only need to add their names to .Music
like… Madonna.Music U2.Music Beyonce.Music etc.
and doing a simple google search with the “.music” keyword you should have a list of ALL music artists of the world (with their total number, too)
Option 4) Maybe they won’t do anything and will simply not participate in .music at all ?
They already have a huge following, and with Timberlake they’ll regain some of what they lost on MySpace.com
I still don’t understand why .music will be so great, when .ARTIST, .ARTISTS, .BAND, .BANDS, .ACTOR, .ACTORS, .MUSICIAN, .MUSICIANS, .RAP, .BLUES, .COUNTRY, .REGGAE, .HIPHOP, .ROCK, .CLASSICAL, .CONCERT, .CONCERTS, ……….. and on and on
Then there is the fact that maybe the record label will want to put them on THEIR OWN extension, assuming they have their own …..
Madonna.WarnerBros
Madonna.LiveNation
Too many options. Too much, too confusing, every extension has too many alternatives that are distinct enough to be approved yet still confusing to consumers and can dilute their value, IMO.
Lets stop with the endless fantasy of “unlimited” TLDs.
IIRC, doesn’t the math break down to something like $500K gross AOE to get keep gears moving on one of those things?
It doesn’t take a configural-logic genius to see how this show evolves.
Some TLDs might be considered a ‘failure’ from a domain speculator point of view, but a successful (and lucrative) enterprise from an operator standpoint. Conversely, the front side economics pretty much bar marginal terms from ever being self sustaining, ergo, they will either be tried as standalone TLDs and fail, or they will never exist in the first place.
Even though .violin might have some obvious potential users, is there *really* enough lucre there to support itself and make running the show worthwhile for someone? Mile wide, wholly definitive terms like .music are in a league of their own; topical subvariants cannot compare.
The wildcard is what happens if (when) the barriers to entry for these TLDs starts to drift downward and downward and downward… Because that *will* happen.
… and Timberlake having an ownership stake in the ghost-ship known as Myspace is about as relevant to a .music TLD as the average selling price of Oriental Rugs in Los Angeles means to the per-acre yield of Soybeans in Nebraska.
Roussos should start preselling .music domains even in the standard landrush auction format, use NameJet or whatever, and require people who win actually pay for a percentage of the domains they win now, but can be refunded later if he fails to secure the tld, otherwise the balance then due. Why start selling domains now?
A) It will show how much community support he has for operating the tld
B) It will provide extra funds to help him win auction process
C) Perhaps he could even then get the trademark in the US from an “actual use in commerce” as customers will have actually spent money on .music at this point.
the tld does not matter nearly as much as the content.
can joe user tell how good a usenet group is by just looking at the name of the group?
alt.music.joesfavouritegenre alt.joesfavouritegenre.joesfavouriteartist alt.music.joesfavouriteartist alt.mp3.joesfavouriteartist
etc.
how does joe know which one has the content he wants?
joe can’t tell from just the name of the group.
then consider that usenet tries to follow some sort of logical hierarchy. yet joe still has to look further than just the names of the groups. he needs to look at the content.
are there any requirements on icann to follow any sort of logical plan?
content is far more important than a domain name if joe is searching for music.
the web is becoming more content-aware. searching by hash, not to mention digital signing, is becoming more and more common. how do you think compyrighted materials are identified in the cloud?
we all know there are serious limitations to keywords and subjective metadata. not to mention a glut of confusingly similar domain names.
Content is and always will be king. So is user experience, but once you make the transition from splogs and SEO’ing meaningless made-for-adsense drivel to actual, budgeted marketing of a meaningful, substantive application, the marketing considerations are a lot more nuanced. Owning the stone cold nuts keyword.com domain puts wind at your back.
The only thing left to be seen is whether .newTLDs can cross the eighty mile wide competitive advantage moat that .com currently enjoys.
Not sure how relevant this is, but there is a more obvious MySpace-.music link — Richard Rosenblatt.
Slightly off topic, but I wonder if Timberlake got turned on to the potential of Myspace after being involved in the FB movie? Bit tenuous maybe, but who knows, and having him and a few of his buddies involved will guarantee a lot of coverage – a chance for it to become cool again.
yes, .ARTIST is better and much better is .SHOW
Why would any major artist use .music? They generally use fairly fanciful names that are available in .com and/or have the money to buy the .com. Added to that it sounds totally geeky, bonjovi.music, justintimberlake.music? Get real.
“yes, .ARTIST is better and much better is .SHOW”
No one is doubting “Music” as a keyword on its own (i.e. Music.com), but we are doing so in the context of a gTLD side by side with thousands of other similar gTLD’s
Justin Timberlake is the perfect example, actually. He happens to not only play .MUSIC, but he is a well-known .ACTOR. He often performs a .CONCERT and sometimes multiple .CONCERTS while on a major .TOUR. His label is .JIVE .RECORDS and he tends to specialize in .HIPHOP, but he has a few underground collaborations of .RAP with some well known .RAPPERS. All in all, I’d say he is an excellent and .FAMOUS .ARTIST that can do many different things. In fact, he used to be part of a famous boy .BAND in his younger years. I see him on .TV all the time.
You should get the point by now. It’s not that .music is bad- it’s an excellent keyword. There are too many legitimate alternatives.
It will mean absolutely nothing.
Though quite successful, Justin Timberlake is a tiny part of the music world.
however, Justin Timberlake is enough rich to buy MySpace only to play with it, when he is bored to go every day with a new girl 🙂
with timberlake owning part of myspace you will see exclusive content and videos released there.this is where murdock fell off the ship.
if justin releases a huge hit which is possible other artists will join the fray.so exclusive music and artists will now be on myspace.
then there are the corp guys who are upset with apple charging 99 cents for their songs and cannot raise their price…so there will be additional myspace partners in the future to be announced.
could there be a myspace.music in the future?
I’m back in the music business (DW drums arrived today!) and I’m glad that Timberlake is part of the MySpace purchase. He’s a smart, talented guy and his success today is no accident. But let’s not kid ourselves. Most musicians are not lemmings. They’re quite independent and march to their own beat. For “MySpace Means Music” to become a reality, you would need a plethora of music greats (not American Idol wannabees) to totally re-brand themselves. Aint going to happen.
I don’t really see any relationship between the sale of MySpace.com and a .MUSIC extension.
Brad
@james – i don’t think it’s tenuous. i think it’s 100% accurate. lots of people know there’s money to be made. but they’re not nerds (they can’t set up a network and they can’t code). but if they are paired with a nerd, through introductions, then things often start rolling. money moves. rosenblatt and others can sell these projects easily to those with who have cash to invest, connections and a sense for trends, but who have little technical know-how re: computers (e.g. celebs, musicians, and others). they key to understanding if these projects are sound or whether they are just hype is understanding the technology involved. bits and bytes. even more mundane than reading a prospectus. there are none too few bernie madoffs in IT, especially the internet. news corp got pwned. who’s next?
“…yes, .ARTIST is better and much better is .SHOW…”
or the cool one for young teens group,
.Pop
.PopStar
The .Music gTLD owners strike a deal (revenue sharing) to sell music in conjunction with the record labels for each artist? Search by artist.
What about a .Movie gTLD to buy movie tickets online? PiratesofTheCaribbean.Movie, Hangover.Movie…..Search by Movie.
-Peter
@peter:
wouldn’t easily allow for fuzzy search. and experience shows users don’t type consistent strings. they type unique, unpredictable, even nonsensical ones.
doubtful that gtlds are going to improve navigation. though they might lead to some new ideas, maybe deyond dns.
we are going to see some epic fails as hype levels are high and rising. this is dotcom bubble history repeating itself. but companies providing services to registrants will do very well from this experiment.
this will become known as the dotgtld bubble.
Been away from this blog for a few days. Funny, I was in LA last night talking with a friend of mine about this very deal.
When someone wants to embed video, YouTube has the market covered… but, more often than not, whenever someone wants to do the same with music? A large percentage of the time, they send the user to MySpace, where they have a larger depository of tunes than you might think.
Make that player easier to embed on other sites and they will own that segment.
That is definitely the right play for that platform and probably the very reason Timberlake is involved. Not that he’s the be-all end-all of the music industry, but he does have some smarts.
As for .music’s “community” based application, that’s over with if MySpace wants it. After all, even at its diminished capacity, it still is a bigger “music” community by an exponential magnitude.
Will be interesting to watch.
I can’t see any meanings.