MYSPACE, SONY BMG PACT

Sony BMG Music Entertainment and MySpace are now partners.

The two signed a new licensing agreement to enable the site’s 70 million monthly U.S. users to access streaming music videos, as well as select audio material and other content, from Sony BMG artists.

The deal, which calls for SBMG and MySpace to share in sponsorship and advertising revenues, “underscores the organizations’ commitment to building new business models that benefit artists and consumers alike.”

Under the terms of the deal, SBMG will license music videos, select audio material and other content from its extensive artist roster and will make the content available on its artists’ MySpace profile pages. MySpace and Sony BMG will share in sponsorship and advertising revenues generated from the music videos and profile pages. MySpace will also work with SBMG to promote the music company's artists throughout the site.

"We are happy to be working with MySpace as we continue to develop new approaches to doing business online," commented SBMG President Global Digital Business & U.S. Sales Thomas Hesse. "This new effort is a great way to build new audiences for our artists, bring value to fans, and offer exciting new opportunities to advertisers. We look forward to working closely with MySpace as we roll out this ambitious new project. But why is my only friend Tom Anderson?"

“MySpace has always served as a powerful promotional platform for music and we’re pleased to work with SBMG to take it to the next level,” said MySpace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe. “We look forward to working with SBMG and the rest of the music industry to enable people to share their love of music with one another through the next generation of MySpace music services.”

With more than 7 million bands, MySpace Music allows artists and labels to establish an interactive dialogue with their fan base by creating profiles to connect with fans via mail and blogs, post tour dates, upload music, virally share promotional widgets, and debut albums to MySpace 110 million global users. MySpace provides access for fans to the world’s most popular artists through a number of offline events including the Secret Show intimate concert series, The List concert productions, MySpace Live webcast events, and Hey Play This… a by-request artist session for MySpace users.

MySpace has recently hosted “Secret Shows” for SBMG artists such as Good Charlotte, Franz Ferdinand, Clipse, Tenacious D, Ray LaMontagne, Yung Joc and Slayer. Hey Play This…events for labels acts have included Ben Folds and Velvet Revolver, and music content exclusives have featured acts such as Bruce Springsteen and Diddy as well as exclusive album premieres from Sean Kingston (first artist to break one million streams in one day), Mark Ronson, Tori Amos, Modest Mouse and the Editors.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.