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The “Big Four” are making a mistake by anointing Myspace as their syndication platform

Several are reporting news that “Myspace” is the word of the day of for the big 4 labels who look to be putting together a streaming JV of their own. From what I hear it sounds much like Fox and NBC’s Hulu, with Myspace as the independent party controlling ad sales and distribution for a new syndicatable music player.   

Big problems abound for this one:  For one, if in fact the labels are looking to Myspace to sell all advertising, and provide the streaming and syndication platform, they’re doing it oblivious to the fact that they already went down this path with Apple, and that got messy.  Why is that? Because Apple, like Fox is a for-profit organization with its own shareholders and its own independent reasons for choosing a strategic direction.  In Apple’s case, they sucked up to the labels for 8 years to build catalog and win market share and overnight became more powerful than the labels themselves.  This paradigm is sure to repeat itself if the labels give similar control to Fox and Murdoch.  

Hulu, which hasn’t even fully launched yet, is in a much better position for success because it has recognized the importance of Hulu’s independence to the success of the participants in the JV.   Hulu is not owned by any one entity with any single need, but is controlled jointly by two competitive organizations.  These two controlling companies (Fox and NBC) both have deep roots in ad sales and therefore have proved their ability to build a team and create advertising value for their customers.  This simple check and balance scenario is enough to offset future competitive concerns, at least on Hulu’s part.  The same can’t be said for whatever comes out of the Big Four labels in the next few days.  iTunes round two, here we come.