Can you turn MySpace friends into money? Universal Music, Sony BMG, and Warner Music Group are betting they can. The three labels and News Corp.'s social-networking site are set to launch MySpace Music in mid-September. The joint venture is designed to help the labels by giving them a slice of revenues from online advertising, e-commerce, and other businesses beyond music.
But will artists' "friends" buy into the idea? The labels' behind the biggest artists on MySpace sure hope so. Here's a slide show of the top ten artists on MySpace, judged by the social network's own algorithm that factors in number of friends, music streams, video plays, and visits, among other things.