MySpace Music Launching 9/15, Still No CEO in General
By Silicon el 29-Aug-2008
No news on the never-ending hunt for a MySpace Music CEO. What's the holdup? One theory, which we've heard from a couple of people who have talked to the company about the position: It's not a CEO job. "It's really general manager of MySpace Music", one interviewee sniffs. Another observer suggests that the best person to run the job already works at MySpace: COO Amit Kapur.
In any case, the vacant position doesn't seem to be holding up the launch. That's scheduled for September 15th, we hear.
In the meantime, anyone who wants to peer beyond the artfully mussed hair of Chris and Tom can spend time this weekend with the new Fast Company cover story on the company. Ellen McGirt dutifully hits many of the company's talking points -- we're really big, we're making headway on ads, music is a huge opportunity for us -- but still manages to unearth some great nuggets. Such as:
Chris and Tom heart Doug and Jimmy. We'd heard the MySpace guys are very, very interested in what the top brass at Universal Music Group think. Which makes sense, since UMG is the world's biggest music label. Here's the version per FC:
DeWolfe put in a call to famed record producer Jimmy Iovine of Interscope to bat around ideas... Iovine's unexpected but inspired suggestion: Call Doug Morris. "If you want to get into the business, you have to get Doug," says Iovine...The day after talking to Iovine, he got on a plane and flew to New York to meet Morris. Morris listened. And over the ensuing months, DeWolfe and his team managed to bring Warner and Sony back into the mix, in a joint venture called MySpace Music. (Along the way, MySpace settled the Universal suit, coughing up a rumored $100 million.)
Even MySpace execs think MySpace is ugly. We imagine Steve Pearman won't be giving interviews for a while, though:
"It's a big priority for us," says senior VP of product strategy Steve Pearman, a good-natured techie who walked me through the redesign plans as I worked my way through a huge tub of Twizzlers on his desk. He concedes the site has become a chore to navigate and laments an interface that was simpler once upon a time, before links and products barnacled on as the site rushed to grow. "How the hell did it end up looking like this?" he asks in all seriousness. "This is a terrible design!"
Bonus coverage for Robert Scoble fans: The Scobleizer sticks a microphone in the face of MySpace CTO Abner Whitcomb:
Photo via FastCompany.
See Also: MySpace Music Grunts: Please Don't Hire A CEO! Meet Another Person Who Won't Run MySpace Music MySpace Music: Launching In September MySpace Music Needs Launch Date, CEO MySpace: Check Out Our Redesign! Facebook: Check Out Our Huge Developer Conference! MySpace Music: Rolling Out Over Next Four Months
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Last we heard, MySpace was planning on launching its Music site in September. And last we heard, MySpace execs still haven't been able to land a CEO for the company, which is a joint v [..] 
Yesterday we noted that MySpace Music didn't have a launch date or a CEO. Today they've filled one of those those holes: MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe has committed to a September launch.
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Seems like an unlikely pairing, but rumors are now circulating that Amazon is now bidding to provide online retail services in conjunction with Myspace Music. Myspace announced their music service earlier this year, with plans to provide music from Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner. They plan to offer both ad-supported free streaming as well as [...]
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