MarketMe 2.0

Amazon.com could become the e-commerce engine behind the MySpace Music service expected to launch in September, according to a report on TechCrunch.

In April, MySpace, which is already used by young acts trying to promote their music, announced it was working on a music service that would handle songs from at least three of the four major record labels. The labels will get an equity stake in the new joint venture and a share of all the revenue the service collects.

TechCrunch reports that Rhapsody and (interestingly) Apple are also bidding for the business.

The MySpace service is expected to offer free streaming music, unprotected MP3 downloads, ring tones, and e-commerce offerings such as merchandise and ticket sales, MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe said in April. Among the top four music companies, EMI has so far been the lone holdout.

Can MySpace Music become a welcome alternative to iTunes dependency? No other music site has had either the audience or the clout with the labels to offer a strong option to Apple’s wildly popular music service. But with well over 100 million users, 30 million who already listen to music on the site, and 5 million music acts already promoting their music on the site, MySpace could have the heft to give iTunes a strong challenge.

Update: Our music industry sources say Arrington’s story is right on, that Amazon is in talks to provide music downloads to MySpace Music, and indeed, MySpace executives are telling the recording companies that their target launch date is Sept. 15.

CNet News

Amazon and PayPal have long not been partners in commerce. Of course, the reason for this most oft stated is basic competition. As you might know, Amazon introduced last year its Amazon Payments shop-till-your-cell-phone-drops Apr-2-2008 system for use at Amazon.com and partner sites.

Still, the idea of broadening the Amazon Payments business greatly piques the interest of analysts. One more party to voice enthusiasm for a larger payment network to span a vast supply of Internet commerce Web sites is Derek Brown of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald. As quoted by Eric Savitz of Barrons, Brown seemed this week to increase the potency of that lingering flame, saying that an “Amazon Payments” system a la PayPal in its potentially extensive reach, is perhaps a very worthwhile avenue to venture down, due to its intimate and very refined knowledge of online retail in all its limits and possibilities. Brown argues Amazon had “long ago demonstrated that it understands (perhaps better than any company) the needs/wants of online retailers.”

PayPal is no doubt the reigning leader of payment transfer services born on the Web. Its reach is quite extraordinary, and it continues to reap the financial benefits in kind. So much so that its success drew Google into the fold in 2006 with its own competitor, dubbed Checkout, beginning with the US market. But while Google Checkout has made a name for itself, it has not achieved ubiquity as eBay’s property managed to do. This naturally leaves open a fairly great opportunity for Amazon. With its lasting mark made on the online retail market, Amazon is most certainly positioned to offer PayPal a significant challenge.

My sense is that exercising http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_exercise its heft is in Amazon’s interest at this point in time. The company’s place atop the heap in online retail is definitely advantageous for the pursuit of an extension to its business, and, as with its Associates program, the world of third-party Web sites are the group best able to help Amazon make the most of its core assets - all while offering consumers another way to pay, as it were. The company doesn’t absolutely need to invest in the payment space to such a degree as is being speculated. But there’s little chance that it will encounter much difficulty in the way of user adoption if it so chooses to make the jump, discounting the fact that one marketplace will be a no-go for an ambitious Amazon Payments push. It’s name: eBay.

Mashable

Jacob: “All I have to say is, ‘goodridence, PayPal!’”