3. MySpace Music

News Corp.
Free
music.myspace.com/

Heralded by some as a step toward the future of online music distribution, MySpace Music opened its doors in September as a joint venture between MySpace operator News Corp. (NWS) and the four major record labels. As promised, the site offered free streams of a nearly exhaustive catalog of popular artists and songs. But it drew rants for strange design decisions, like leaving a search box off its front page, and not including the ability to add songs to a playlist as they're playing. While those elements could be fixed, one thing cannot: the sense of betrayal felt by many independent musicians on the site, who claimed they were now competing on an uneven playing field with the label-backed artists.

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